Related papers: Isotope-selective photo-ionization for calcium ion…
An atomic ion is trapped at the tip of a single-mode optical fiber in a cryogenic (8 K) surface-electrode ion trap. The fiber serves as an integrated source of laser light, which drives the quadrupole qubit transition of $^{88}$Sr$^+$.…
We report on a technique to improve the continuous loading of atomic strontium into a magnetic trap from a Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT). This is achieved by adding a depumping laser tuned to the 3P1 to 3S1 (688-nm) transition. The depumping…
Isolating neutral and charged particles from the environment is essential in precision experiments. For decades, this has been achieved by trapping ions with radio-frequency (rf) fields and neutral particles with optical fields. Recently,…
Sympathetic cooling of Th$^{3+}$ ions is demonstrated in an experiment where $^{229}$Th and $^{230}$Th are extracted from uranium recoil ion sources and are confined in a linear Paul trap together with laser-cooled $^{88}$Sr$^+$ ions.…
Cadmium is laser-cooled and trapped with excitations to triplet states with UVA light, first using only the $67\,$kHz wide $326\,$nm intercombination line and subsequently, for large loading rates, the $25\,$MHz wide $361\,$nm…
Doppler cooling of calcium ions has been experimentally demonstrated using the S1/2 to D5/2 dipole-forbidden transition. Scattering forces and fluorescence levels a factor of 5 smaller than for usual Doppler cooling on the dipole allowed…
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…
An ultra-stable optical clock based on coherent population trapping effect of alkaline-earth ions, such as Ca$^+$, Sr$^+$, Ba$^+$, is analyzed here. The proposed transitions use the odd isotopes, so that the frequency shift is insensitive…
The unstable radium nucleus is appealing for probing new physics due to its high mass, octupole deformation and energy level structure. Ion traps, with long hold times and low particle numbers, are excellent for work with radioactive…
We present a mass spectrometric technique for identifying the masses and relative abundances of Coulomb-crystallized ions held in a linear Paul trap. A digital radiofrequency waveform is employed to generate the trapping potential, as this…
We report on the loading of large ion Coulomb crystals into a linear Paul trap incorporating a high-Finesse optical cavity (F~3200). We show that, even though the 3-mm diameter dielectric cavity mirrors are placed between the trap…
Integration of fiber optics may play a critical role in the development of quantum information processors based on trapped ions and atoms by enabling scalable collection and delivery of light and coupling trapped ions to optical…
We study the Doppler-cooling of radial two-dimensional (2D) Coulomb crystals of trapped barium ions in a radiofrequency trap. Ions in radial 2D crystals experience micromotion of an amplitude that increases linearly with the distance from…
We report the trapping of ultracold neutral $ \text{Rb}$ atoms and $ \text{Ba}^+ $ ions in a common optical potential in absence of any radiofrequency (RF) fields. We prepare $ \text{Ba}^+ $ at $ 370 ~ \mu K $ and demonstrate efficient…
Direct laser cooling of molecules has made significant progress in recent years. However, the selective cooling and manipulation of molecules based on their isotopic composition, which is ubiquitous in atomic laser cooling, has not yet been…
Molecular ions that are generated by chemical reactions with trapped atomic ions can serve as an accessible testbed for developing molecular quantum technologies. On the other hand, they are also a hindrance to scaling up quantum computers…
Laser spectroscopy of short-lived radium isotopes in a linear Paul trap has been performed. The isotope shifts of the $6d\,^2$D$_{3/2}\,$ - $7p\,^2$P$_{1/2}\,$ transition in $^{209-214}$Ra$^+$ were measured, which are sensitive to the short…
Trapped ions for quantum information processing has been an area of intense study due to the extraordinarily high fidelity operations that have been reported experimentally. Specifically, barium trapped ions have been shown to have…
We report laser cooling and trapping of $^{224}$Ra$^+$ ions. This was realized via two-step photoionization loading of radium into an ion trap. A robust source for $^{224}$Ra atoms, which have a 3.6-day half-life, was realized with an…
We report on the design, installation, and test of an experimental facility for the production of ultra-cold atomic isotopes and isomers of cesium. The setup covers a broad span of mass numbers and nuclear isomers, allowing one to directly…