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Ph.D. Thesis - Physics

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Proposals for scaling up ion trap quantum simulators<br />

Quantum control of up to eight ions in linear Paul traps has now been demonstrated<br />

[HHR + 05, LKS + 05]. The challenge in controlling that number and larger numbers has<br />

many sources. For one, the number of motional normal modes that must be effectively<br />

cooled depends linearly on the number of ions in the trap. This is a difficulty mainly for<br />

schemes that require ground state cooling. Also, the ion-ion distance, and therefore coupling<br />

rate, is not constant in a chain of more than three ions. These issues encourage one to come<br />

up with ways of networking ions that are stored in different traps, or finding single-trap<br />

designs in which quantum simulations may be implemented. We present below some of the<br />

proposals for scaling up ion trap quantum simulators.<br />

• Store a small number of ions in each of a large number of separate Paul traps, Move<br />

ions from trap to trap to allow them to interact [KMW02].<br />

The traps for shuttling ions require microfabrication, mainly because dc control elec-<br />

trodes need to be close to the ions to perform shuttling. There are two broad classes<br />

of microfabricated traps, 3-D and 2-D. 3-D traps have electrodes in more than one<br />

plane, allowing for a deeper trap (all else being equal) [MHS + 04, SHO + 06, BWG + 05].<br />

2-D traps, also called “surface-electrode” traps, have all electrodes fabricated in a sin-<br />

gle plane. These are shallower, but simpler to fabricate [CBB + 05, SCR + 06]. The<br />

Wineland group at NIST in Boulder uses a segmented trap for their quantum opera-<br />

tions, and already incorporates ion movement into their protocols, e.g. in [BCS + 04].<br />

Ion movement has also been demonstrated in a T-junction [HOS + 06], and in a wider<br />

variety of planar geometries, albeit with charged microspheres rather than atomic ions<br />

[PLB + 06].<br />

• Connect ions using photons.<br />

Some encouraging early progress has also been made in networking ions using photons.<br />

For instance, in Ref. [MMO + 07], entanglement of ions at a distance was demonstrated.<br />

This approach has the advantage that the motional states of the ions do not have a<br />

role in storing or processing quantum information, implying that the motional state<br />

of the ion can be neglected, as long as the ions are confined to a region of space much<br />

smaller than the photon wavelength (Lamb-Dicke limit). Accordingly, the cooling<br />

requirements are less stringent than those for other quantum operations, such as the<br />

Cirac-Zoller gate [CZ95].<br />

• Connect ions using wires.<br />

The idea is that the image charges due to the oscillations of one ion are transmitted<br />

over a conductive wire to another ion. In this scheme, the ion-ion coupling arises from<br />

the motional state of the ions, even though the ions are located in different traps. This<br />

was discussed in Ref. [TBZ05] in the context of connecting ions to superconducting<br />

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