Enhanced micromotion compensation using a phase modulated light field

We investigate sideband spectroscopy of a trapped ion using a probe laser phase modulated at the trap drive frequency. The enhanced sensitivity of our technique over traditional sideband spectroscopy allows us to detect stray fields of $0.01\,\mathrm{V/m}$ on a timescale of a few minutes and detect differential phases of $5\,\mu\mathrm{rad}$ between applied ac potentials. We also demonstrate the ability suppress Doppler shifts from excess motion to well below the limit imposed by the intrinsic motion of the ion in the vibrational ground-state. The technique we introduce can be readily implemented in any ion trap system that utilizes sideband spectroscopy for micromotion compensation and can be seamlessly integrated into experiments in a fully automated way