NIST physicists have developed a novel ion trap with an integrated optical fiber that can collect light emitted by single ions, enabling measurement of quantum information stored in the ions. This advance could simplify quantum computer design and serve as a step toward swapping information between matter and light in future quantum networks.
The new device is a 1-millimeter-square ion trap with a built-in optical fiber. The authors use ions as quantum bits (qubits) to store information in experimental quantum computing, which may someday solve certain problems that are intractable today. An ion can be adjustably positioned 80 to 100 micrometers from an optical fiber, which detects the ion’s fluorescence signals indicating the qubit’s information content.
The design is helpful because of the tight coupling between the ion and the fiber, and also because it’s small, so you can get a lot of fibers on a chip. NIST scientists demonstrated the new device using magnesium ions. Light emitted by an ion passes through a hole in an electrode and is collected in the fiber below the electrode surface. The new trap design is intended as a prototype for eventually pairing single ions with single photons, to make an interface enabling matter qubits to swap information with photon qubits in a quantum computing and communications network.
Keywords: Fiber, Ion, Photon, Qubit, Trap
