2000/02/22 by Q. A. Turchette, D. Kielpinski, B. E. King +9 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.61.063418
With minor changes. 24 pages, including 7 figures. Submitted by Phys. Rev. A
arxiv created 2000/02/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We have investigated motional heating of laser-cooled 9Be+ ions held in radio-frequency (Paul) traps. We have measured heating rates in a variety of traps with different geometries, electrode materials, and characteristic sizes. The results show that heating is due to electric-field noise from the trap electrodes which exerts a stochastic fluctuating force on the ion. The scaling of the heating rate with trap size is much stronger than that expected from a spatially uniform noise source on the electrodes (such as Johnson noise from external circuits), indicating that a microscopic uncorrelated noise source on the electrodes (such as fluctuating patch-potential fields) is a more likely candidate for the source of heating.