Deterministic Ultracold Ion Source Targeting the Heisenberg Limit

The major challenges to fabricate quantum processors and future nano-solid-state devices are material modification techniques with nanometer resolution and suppression of statistical fluctuations of dopants or qubit carriers. Based on a segmented ion trap with mK laser-cooled ions we have realized a deterministic single-ion source which could operate with a huge range of sympathetically cooled ion species, isotopes or ionic molecules. We have deterministically extracted a predetermined number of ions on demand and have measured a longitudinal velocity uncertainty of 6.3 m/s and a spatial beam divergence of 600 mu rad. We show in numerical simulations that if the ions are cooled to the motional ground state (Heisenberg limit) nanometer spatial resolution can be achieved.