Geometry is a key feature of the new trap design. This is the first demonstration of ion transport through a junction in a trap where all electrodes are located on one flat surface, a more scalable design than the multilayer ion traps originally developed. The various electrodes are used to position and move the ions. At least three adjacent electrodes are needed to hold an ion in a dedicated energy "well." This well and the ion can then be moved around to different locations by applying voltages to several other electrodes. The modular design would allow the addition of extra rings, which could significantly increase capabilities, according to Jason Amini, who designed the trap while a NIST postdoctoral researcher and is now at the Georgia Tech Quantum Institute in Atlanta.
"The trap design demonstrates the use of a basic component library that can be quickly assembled to form structures optimized for a particular experiment," Amini says. "We can imagine rapid development of traps tailored to individual experiments."
NIST scientists are continuing development of the racetrack ion trap as well as other designs. The new work was funded in part by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity and the Office of Naval Research. Four of the 10 authors of the new paper were postdoctoral or guest researchers at NIST at the time of the research and are currently affiliated with the Georgia Tech Quantum Institute, Atlanta, Ga.; Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa; Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore; and Institut Neel-CNRS, Grenoble, France.
This video shows ion transport in quantum computer hardware.
(Photo Credit: J. Amini/NIST)
This is a photograph of NIST racetrack ion trap under development as possible hardware for a future quantum computer. The 150 zones for storing, transporting and probing ions (electrically charged atoms) are located in the center ring structure and the six channels radiating out from its edges.
(Photo Credit: : J. Amini/NIST)
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)