Setup of a dipole trap for all-optical trapping

Micromotion induced by the radio-frequency field contributes greatly to the systematic frequency shifts of optical frequency standards.Although different strategies for mitigating this effect have been proposed,trapping ions optically has the potential to provide a generic solution to the elimination of micromotion.This could be achieved by trapping a single ion in the dipole trap composed of a highpower laser field.Here,we present the setup of the dipole trap composed of a 532 nm laser at a power of 10 W aiming to optically trap a single^(40)Ca^(+)and we observe an AC-Stark shift of the fluorescence spectrum line of~22 MHz caused by the 532 nm dipole beam.The beam waist of the dipole laser is several microns,which would provide a dipole potential strong enough for all-optical trapping of a single^(40)Ca^(+)ion.

Significantly Improving the Escape Time of a Single 40Ca+Ion in a Linear Paul Trap by Fast Switching of the Endcap Voltage

Sympathetic cooling is a method used to lower the kinetic energy of ions with complicated energy-level structures,via Coulomb interactions with laser-cooled ions in an ion trap.The ion to be sympathetically cooled is sometimes prepared outside of the trap,and it is critical to introduce this ion into the trap by temporarily lowering the potential of one endcap without allowing the coolant ion to escape.We study the time required for a laser-cooled ion to escape from a linear Paul trap when the voltage of one endcap is lowered.The escape time is on the order of a few microseconds,and varies significantly when the low-level voltage changes.A re-cooling time of a maximum of 13 s was measured,which can be reduced to approximately one hundred of milliseconds by decreasing the duration of the low-level voltage.The measurement of these critical values lays the foundation for the smooth injection and cooling of the ion to be sympathetically cooled.

Quantitative evaluation of space charge effects of laser-cooled three-dimensional ion system on a secular motion period scale

In this paper,we introduce a method of quantitatively evaluating and controlling the space charge effect of a lasercooled three-dimensional（3 D） ion system in a linear Paul trap.The relationship among cooling efficiency,ion quantity,and trapping strength is analyzed quantitatively,and the dynamic space distribution and temporal evolution of the 3 D ion system on a secular motion period time scale in the cooling process are obtained.The ion number influences the eigen-micromotion feature of the ion system.When trapping parameter q is ～ 0.3,relatively ideal cooling efficiency and equilibrium temperature can be obtained.The decrease of axial electrostatic potential is helpful in reducing the micromotion heating effect and the degradation in the total energy.Within a single secular motion period under different cooling conditions,ions transform from the cloud state（each ion disperses throughout the envelope of the ion system） to the liquid state（each ion is concentrated at a specific location in the ion system） and then to the crystal state（each ion is subjected to a fixed motion track）.These results are conducive to long-term storage and precise control,motion effect suppression,high-efficiency cooling,and increasing the precision of spectroscopy for a 3 D ion system.

Simulation and experiment of the cooling effect of trapped ion by pulsed laser

We investigate the process of pulsed laser cooling using a self-constructed molecular dynamics simulation(MDSimulation)program.We simulate the Doppler cooling process and pulsed laser Doppler cooling process of a single^(40)Ca^(+)ion,and the comparison with the experimental results shows that this self-constructed MD-Simulation program works well in the weak laser intensity situation.Furthermore,we analyze the pulsed laser Doppler cooling process of a single^(27)Al^(+)ion.This program can be used to analyze the molecular dynamic process of various situations of Doppler cooling in an ion trap,which could give predictions and experimental guidance.

Deceleration of Metastable Li^+ Beam by Combining Electrostatic Lens and Ion Trap Technique

Ion deceleration has played a critical role in ion-related research when the ions are produced in the form of a high-energy beam.We present a deceleration method combining electrostatic lens and ion trap technique,which can effectively decelerate ions to energy below the trapping potential of a typical ion trap.The experiments were performed on metastable 1s2s3S1Li+ions,and demonstrated that the kinetic energy could easily be reduced from^450 e V to a few e V,with the latter being confirmed using the Doppler-shifted fluorescence spectra.

Hyperpolarizabilities of alkaline-earth metal ions Be^+, Mg^+, and Ca^+

The knowledge of the hyperpolarizabilities of atoms and ions is helpful for the analysis of the high order effects of the frequency shifts in precision spectroscopy experiments. Liu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 223001 （2015）] proposed to establish all-optical trapped ion clocks using laser at the magic wavelength for clock transition. To evaluate the high-order frequency shifts in this new scheme of optical clocks, hyperpolarizabilities are needed, but absent. Using the finite field method based on the B-spline basis set and model potentials, we calculated the electric-field-dependent energy shifts of the ground and low-lying excited states in Be＋, Mg＋, and Ca＋ in the field strength range of 0.0-6×10-5 a.u.. The scalar and tensor polarizabilities （α0, α2） and hyperpolarizabilities （Y0,Y2, 74） were deduced. The results of the hyperpolarizabilities for Be＋ showed good agreement with the values in literature, implying that the present method can be applied for the effective estimation of the atomic hyperpolarizabilities, which are rarely reported but needed in experiments. The feasibility of optical trapping of Ca＋ is discussed, and the contributions of hyperpolarizabilities to the transition frequency shift for Ca＋ in the optical dipole trap are estimated using quasi-electrostatic approximation.

Coherent effects in a three-photon CPT process of Ca＋

Linewidth narrowing and other quantum coherent effects based on three-photon coherent population trapping （CPT） in Ca＋ ions are investigated. If the propagation directions of the three lasers obey the phase matching condition, the dark linewidth resulting from the CPT can be very narrow, and it can be controlled by adjusting the parameters of the lasers.