We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of a microfabricated surface-electrode ion trap that supports controlled transport through the two-dimensional intersection of linear trapping zones arranged in a ninety-degree cross. The trap is fabricated with very-large-scalable-integration (VLSI) techniques which are compatible with scaling to a larger quantum information processor. The shape of the radio-frequency (RF) electrodes is optimized with a genetic algorithm to minimize axial pseudopotential barriers and to minimize ion heating during transport. Seventy-eight independent DC control electrodes enable fine control of the trapping potentials. We demonstrate reliable ion transport between junction legs, trapping of ion chains with nearly-equal spacing in one of the trap's linear sections, and merging and splitting ions from these chains. Doppler-cooled ions survive more than 10^5 round-trip transits between junction legs without loss and more than sixty-five consecutive round trips without laser cooling.
@article{arxiv.1210.3655,
title = {Reliable transport through a microfabricated X-junction surface-electrode ion trap},
author = {Kenneth Wright and Jason M. Amini and Daniel L. Faircloth and Curtis Volin and S. Charles Doret and Harley Hayden and C. -S. Pai and David W. Landgren and Douglas Denison and Tyler Killian and Richart E. Slusher and Alexa W. Harter},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.3655},
year = {2015}
}