A silicon-based ion trap chip protected from semiconductor charging
Abstract
Silicon-based ion trap chips can benefit from existing advanced fabrication technologies, such as multi-metal layer techniques for two-dimensional architectures and silicon photonics for the integration of on-chip optical components. However, the scalability of these technologies may be compromised by semiconductor charging, where photogenerated charge carriers produce electric potentials that disrupt ion motion. Inspired by recent studies on charge distribution mechanisms in semiconductors, we developed a silicon-based chip with gold coated on all exposed silicon surfaces. This modification significantly stabilized ion motion compared to a chip without such metallic shielding, a result that underscores the detrimental effects of exposed silicon. With the mitigation of background silicon-induced fields to negligible levels, quantum operations such as sideband cooling and two-ion entangling gates, which were previously infeasible with the unshielded chip, can now be implemented.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2411.13955,
title = {A silicon-based ion trap chip protected from semiconductor charging},
author = {Daun Chung and Kwangyeul Choi and Woojun Lee and Chiyoon Kim and Hosung Shon and Jeonghyun Park and Beomgeun Cho and Kyungmin Lee and Suhan Kim and Seungwoo Yoo and Eui Hwan Jung and Changhyun Jung and Jiyong Kang and Kyunghye Kim and Roberts Berkis and Tracy Northup and Dong-Il "Dan'' Cho and Taehyun Kim},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.13955},
year = {2025}
}