Versatile ytterbium ion trap experiment for operation of scalable ion-trap chips with motional heating and transition-frequency measurements

We present the design and operation of an ytterbium ion trap experiment with a setup offering versatile optical access and 90 electrical interconnects that can host advanced surface and multilayer ion trap chips mounted on chip carriers. We operate a macroscopic ion trap compatible with this chip carrier design and characterize its performance, demonstrating secular frequencies >1 MHz, and trap and cool nearly all of the stable isotopes, including Yb-171(+) ions, as well as ion crystals. For this particular trap we measure the motional heating rate <(n) over dot > and observe an <(n) over dot > proportional to 1/omega(2) behavior for different secular frequencies omega. We also determine a spectral noise density S-E(1 MHz) = 3.6(9) x 10(-11) V-2 m(-2) Hz(-1) at an ion electrode spacing of 310(10) mu m. We describe the experimental setup for trapping and cooling Yb+ ions and provide frequency measurements of the S-2(1/2) <-> P-2(1/2) and D-2(3/2) <-> D-3[3/2](1/2) transitions for the stable Yb-170(+), Yb-171(+), Yb-172(+), Yb-174(+), and Yb-176(+) isotopes which are more precise than previously published work.