Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered that cleaning the electrodes of trapped-ion quantum systems with argon ions can significantly reduce thermal noise, a major obstacle in developing reliable quantum computers. The study found that cleaning the gold-film trap electrodes with argon ions reduced thermal jitter of trapped ions by a factor of 100, addressing a critical issue in ion-based quantum computing.
The research team, led by David Wineland, focused on the source of the noise, which they believe originates from contaminants on the trap electrode surfaces. By baking the traps at high temperatures and using argon ion milling, they were able to remove surface contaminants and reduce the heating rate of trapped ions by two orders of magnitude.
The findings could lead to more reliable ion-based quantum computing systems and provide new insights into surface physics phenomena. The research was supported by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the National Security Agency, the Office of Naval Research, and the NIST Quantum Information Program.
Source: https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2012/02/argon-cleaning-helps-trapped-ions-chill-out
Keywords: Contaminants, Ion, Surface, Anomalous Heating, Electric-field Noise
