Karsten Pyka

We present the design, construction and characterization of an experimental system capable of supporting a broad class of quantum simulation experiments with hundreds of spin qubits using Be-9 ions in a Penning trap. This article provides a…

We use laser-cooled ion Coulomb crystals in the well-controlled environment of a harmonic radiofrequency ion trap to investigate phase transitions and defect formation. Topological defects in ion Coulomb crystals (kinks) have been recently…

We present an experiment to characterize our new linear ion trap designed for the operation of a many-ion optical clock using 115-In^+ as clock ions. For the characterization of the trap as well as the sympathetic cooling of the clock ions…

We report on the design of a segmented linear Paul trap for optical clock applications using trapped ion Coulomb crystals. For an optical clock with an improved short-term stability and a fractional frequency uncertainty of 10^-18, we…

We study experimentally and theoretically the properties of structural defects (kink solitons) in two-dimensional ion Coulomb crystals. We show how different types of kink solitons with different physical properties can be realized, and…

Symmetry breaking phase transitions play an important role in nature. When a system traverses such a transition at a finite rate, its causally disconnected regions choose the new broken symmetry state independently. Where such local choices…