2026/07/14 by N Efthymiadis, Nikolaos Efthymiadis, T Ştefan +3
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Frequency and Time Standards #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum Information and Cryptography
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1361-6455/ae8a97
openalex publication_date 2026/07/14 · openalex created_date 2026/07/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract Sympathetic cooling is an important technique for achieving low motional temperatures in trapped ion systems that cannot be directly laser cooled. In this paper, we report on the sympathetic cooling of large samples (5 × 10 4 ) of Ba + ions which have been optically pumped into a dark state, using laser cooled Ba + ions in a linear radiofrequency (RF) ion trap. The trap lifetime was evaluated with different dark ion fractions as a function of the RF amplitude, the DC trapping potentials, the power and frequency of the cooling lasers, the quality of the vacuum, and the total number of ions. We found that the RF amplitude was the dominant factor contributing to the loss of ions, and that under optimal conditions and with a dark ion fraction as high as 85%, no losses were observed over 100 s long measurement periods, and fewer than 10% of the ions were lost after 1000 s.