Versatile ytterbium ion trap experiment for operation of scalable ion trap chips with motional heating and transition frequency measurements
Abstract
We present the design and operation of an ytterbium ion trap experiment with a setup offering versatile optical access and 90 electrical inter-connects that can host advanced surface and multi-layer ion trap chips mounted on chip carriers. We operate a macroscopic ion trap compatible with this chip carrier design and characterise its performance, demonstrating secular frequencies >1 MHz, and trap and cool nearly all of the stable isotopes, including 171Yb+ ions, as well as ion crystals. For this particular tap we measure the motional heating rate, <n-dot>, and observe a <n-dot> proportional to 1/omega2 behaviour for different secular frequencies, omega. We also determine a spectral noise density SE(1 MHz) = 3.6(9)x10-11 V2 m-2 Hz-1 at an ion electrode spacing of 310(10) mu m. We describe the experimental setup for trapping and cooling Yb+ ions and provide frequency measurements of the 2S1/2 - 2P1/2 and 2D3/2 - 3D[3/2]1/2 transitions for the stable 170Yb+, 171Yb+, 172Yb+, 174Yb+ and 176Yb+ isotopes which are more precise than previously published work.