Author: ["Robert Maiwald","Dietrich Leibfried","Joe Britton","James C. Bergquist","Gerd Leuchs","David J. Wineland"]
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Abstract
An ion trap has been built and characterized in which the atom sits on the top of a stylus-like electrode. The design should find application in the construction of efficient light–matter interfaces and field sensors, where good access to the ion is crucial. Small, controllable, highly accessible quantum systems can serve as probes at the single-quantum level to study a number of physical effects, for example in quantum optics or for electric- and magnetic-field sensing. The applicability of trapped atomic ions as probes is highly dependent on the measurement situation at hand and thus calls for specialized traps. Previous approaches for ion traps with enhanced optical access included traps consisting of a single ring electrode1,2 or two opposing endcap electrodes2,3. Other possibilities are planar trap geometries, which have been investigated for Penning traps4,5 and radiofrequency trap arrays6,7,8. By not having the electrodes lie in a common plane, the optical access can be substantially increased. Here, we report the fabrication and experimental characterization of a novel radiofrequency ion trap geometry. It has a relatively simple structure and provides largely unrestricted optical and physical access to the ion, of up to 96% of the total 4π solid angle in one of the three traps tested. The trap might find applications in quantum optics and field sensing. As a force sensor, we estimate sensitivity to forces smaller than 1 yN Hz−1/2.Cite this article
Maiwald, R., Leibfried, D., Britton, J. et al. Stylus ion trap for enhanced access and sensing. Nature Phys 5, 551–554 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1311 