Deterministic loading of a single strontium ion into a surface electrode trap using pulsed laser ablation

Trapped-ion quantum technologies have been developed for decades toward applications such as precision measurement, quantum communication and quantum computation. Coherent manipulation of ions' oscillatory motions in an ion trap is important for quantum information processing by ions, however, unwanted decoherence caused by fluctuating electric-field environment often hinders stable and high-fidelity operations. One way to avoid this is to adopt pulsed laser ablation for ion loading, a loading method with significantly reduced pollution and heat production. Despite the usefulness of the ablation loading such as the compatibility with cryogenic environment, randomness of the number of loaded ions is still problematic in realistic applications where definite number of ions are preferably loaded with high probability. In this paper, we demonstrate an efficient loading of a single strontium ion into a surface electrode trap generated by laser ablation and successive photoionization. The probability of single-ion loading into a surface electrode trap is measured to be 82%, and such a deterministic single-ion loading allows for loading ions into the trap one-by-one. Our results open up a way to develop more functional ion-trap quantum devices by the clean, stable, and deterministic ion loading.

Automated summary

Trapped-ion quantum technologies have been developed for decades and are used in various applications. Coherent manipulation of ions' oscillatory motions in an ion trap is crucial for quantum information processing. However, unwanted decoherence caused by fluctuating electric-field environment poses a challenge. Ablation loading with pulsed laser can reduce pollution and heat production. This paper demonstrates an efficient loading method for a single ion using laser ablation and successive photoionization, enabling deterministic single-ion loading and opening up new possibilities for functional ion-trap quantum devices.