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Optical trapping of an ion

Nature Photonics volume 4, pages 772–775 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Isolating ions and atoms from the environment is essential in experiments on a quantum level1,2,3,4. For decades, this has been achieved by trapping ions with radiofrequency5 fields and neutral particles with optical fields6. Here we demonstrate the trapping of an ion by interaction with light. The lifetime in the optical trap is several milliseconds, allowing hundreds of oscillations in the optical potential, and could be enhanced by established methods6. These results could form the starting point for combining the advantages of optical trapping and ions. Extending the approach to optical lattices could support developments in experimental quantum simulations7. As well as simulating complex spin systems with trapped ions, a new class of quantum simulations could be enabled that combines atoms and ions in a common lattice (Cirac, J.I., personal communication; Zoller, P., personal communication). Furthermore, ions could be embedded into quantum degenerate gases, thereby avoiding the inevitable excess kinetic energy of ions in radiofrequency traps, which currently limits cold-chemistry experiments8,9.

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Figure 1: Two alternative trapping setups.
Figure 2: Optical trapping probability P as a function of dipole trap duration Toptical.
Figure 3: Optical trapping probability P as a function of power Poptical of the dipole trap beam.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik (MPQ), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (SCHA 973/1-6), the European Commission (The Physics of Ion Coulomb Crystals: FP7 2007–2013. grant no. 249958) and the DFG Cluster of Excellence ‘Munich Centre for Advanced Photonics’. The authors thank H. Schmitz and R. Matjeschk for preliminary work, K. Murr and R. Schmied for helpful discussions, and D. Leibfried and S. Dürr additionally for comments and suggestions regarding our manuscript. Thanks also go to I. Cirac and G. Rempe for their great intellectual and financial support.

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  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Straße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany

    Ch. Schneider, M. Enderlein, T. Huber & T. Schaetz

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  1. Ch. Schneider
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  2. M. Enderlein
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Correspondence to T. Schaetz.

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Schneider, C., Enderlein, M., Huber, T. et al. Optical trapping of an ion. Nature Photon 4, 772–775 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.236

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