Loading and characterization of a printed-circuit-board atomic ion trap

We demonstrate loading of Sr-88(+) ions into a 0.5-mm-scale printed circuit board surface-electrode ion trap. We then characterize the trap by measuring the secular frequencies and comparing them to a three-dimensional simulation of the trap, and by measuring the stray electric fields along two of the trap's principal axes. Cancelling these fields by applying additional voltages enables a hundredfold increase in the trap lifetime to greater than ten minutes at a vacuum of 10(-9) torr.