This paper reports on trapping and laser-cooling of singly-ionized strontium ions in a linear Paul trap. We demonstrate loading of large ion clouds containing as much as 10⁶ ions and laser cooling down to the Coulomb crystal transition. We observe the spatial segregation of the different Sr+ isotopes due to the mass-dependent Paul trap stiffness. Sympathetic cooling of the different isotopes is demonstrated, either by laser-cooling of ⁸⁸Sr+ (83% abundance) or of ⁸⁶Sr+ (10% abundance). These demonstrations open the way to the use of a large ion Coulomb crystal for quantum optics and quantum information experiments, where the strong confinement, the long lifetime, and the absence of perturbation by cooling lasers are crucial.

Date Published: 4 June 2010
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 7727, Quantum Optics, 77270T (4 June 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.855579

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7727:
Quantum Optics
Victor N. Zadkov; Thomas Durt, Editor(s)