Kyle S. McKay

100-fold reduction of electric-field noise in an ion trap cleaned with in situ argon-ion-beam bombardment.

Anomalous heating of trapped atomic ions is a major obstacle to their use as quantum bits in a scalable quantum computer. The physical origin of this heating is not fully understood, but experimental evidence suggests that it is caused by electric-field noise emanating from the surface of the trap electrodes. In this study, we have investigated the role that adsorbates on the electrodes play by identifying contaminant overlayers, developing an in situ argon-ion beam cleaning procedure, and measuring ion heating rates before and after cleaning the trap electrodes’ surfaces. We find a reduction of two orders of magnitude in heating rate after cleaning.

Single-Photon Detection Timing Jitter in a Visible Light Photon Counter

Visible light photon counters (VLPCs) offer many attractive features as photon detectors, such as high quantum efficiency and photon number resolution. We report measurements of the single-photon timing jitter in a VLPC, a critical performance factor in a time-correlated single-photon counting measurement, in a fiber-coupled closed-cycle cryocooler. The measured timing jitter is 240 ps full-width-at-half-maximum at a wavelength of 550 nm, with a dark count rate of 25×103 counts per second. The timing jitter increases modestly at longer wavelengths to 300 ps at 1000 nm, and increases substantially at lower bias voltages as the quantum efficiency is reduced.

Band discontinuity measurements of the wafer bonded InGaAs∕Si heterojunction

p-type InGaAs∕Si heterojunctions were fabricated through a wafer fusion bonding process. The relative band alignment between the two materials at the heterointerface was determined using current-voltage (I-V) measurements and applying thermionic emission-diffusion theory. The valence and conduction band discontinuities for the InGaAs∕Si interface were determined to be 0.48 and −0.1eV, respectively, indicating a type-II band alignment.

Enhanced quantum efficiency of the visible light photon counter in the ultraviolet wavelengths

The visible light photon counter (VLPC) is a very high quantum efficiency (QE, 88% at 694 nm) single photon detector in the visible wavelengths. The QE in the ultraviolet (UV) wavelenghths is poor in these devices due to absorption in the degenerate front contact. We introduce the ultraviolet photon counter (UVPC), where the QE in the near UV wavelength range (300-400 nm) is dramatically enhanced. The degenerate Si front contact of the VLPC is replaced with a Ti Schottky contact, which reduces the absorption of incident photons within the contact layer. We demonstrate a system QE of 5.3% at 300 nm and 11% at 370 nm for a UVPC with a Ti Schottky contact and a single layer MgF(2) antireflection coating.

Micro-fabricated stylus ion trap

An electroformed, three-dimensional stylus Paul trap was designed to confine a single atomic ion for use as a sensor to probe the electric-field noise of proximate surfaces. The trap was microfabricated with the UV-LIGA technique to reduce the distance of the ion from the surface of interest. We detail the fabrication process used to produce a 150 μm tall stylus trap with feature sizes of 40 μm. We confined single, laser-cooled, (25)Mg(+) ions with lifetimes greater than 2 h above the stylus trap in an ultra-high-vacuum environment. After cooling a motional mode of the ion at 4 MHz close to its ground state ( = 0.34 ± 0.07), the heating rate of the trap was measured with Raman sideband spectroscopy to be 387 ± 15 quanta/s at an ion height of 62 μm above the stylus electrodes.

Measurements of trapped-ion heating rates with exchangeable surfaces in close proximity

Electric-field noise from the surfaces of ion-trap electrodes couples to the ions charge causing heating of the ions motional modes. This heating limits the fidelity of quantum gates implemented in quantum information processing experiments. The exact mechanism that gives rise to electric-field noise from surfaces is not well-understood and remains an active area of research. In this work, we detail experiments intended to measure ion motional heating rates with exchangeable surfaces positioned in close proximity to the ion, as a sensor to electric-field noise. We have prepared samples with various surface conditions, characterized in situ with scanned probe microscopy and electron spectroscopy, ranging in degrees of cleanliness and structural order. The heating-rate data, however, show no significant differences between the disparate surfaces that were probed. These results suggest that the driving mechanism for electric-field noise from surfaces is due to more than just thermal excitations alone.

Opportunities for single-photon detection using visible light photon counters

Visible light photon counters (VLPCs) are solid-state devices providing high quantum efficiency (QE) photon detection (>88%) with photon number resolving capability and low timing jitter (~250 ps). VLPC features high QE in the 0.4-1.0μm wavelength range, as the main photon absorption mechanism is provided by electron-hole pair generation across the silicon bandgap. In this paper, we will discuss the optical and electrical operating principles of VLPCs, and propose a range of device optimization paths that improves various aspects of VLPC for advanced quantum optics and quantum information processing experiments, both in the UV and the telecom wavelength range.

Electric-field noise from carbon-adatom diffusion on a Au(110) surface: First-principles calculations and experiments

The decoherence of trapped-ion quantum gates due to heating of their motional modes is a fundamental science and engineering problem. This heating is attributed to electric-field noise arising from the trap-electrode surfaces. In this work, we investigate the source of this noise by focusing on the diffusion of carbon-containing adsorbates on the surface of Au(110). We show by density functional theory, based on detailed scanning probe microscopy, how the carbon adatom diffusion on the gold surface changes the energy landscape and how the adatom dipole moment varies with the diffusive motion. A simple model for the diffusion noise, which varies quadratically with the variation of the dipole moment, predicts a noise spectrum, in accordance with the measured values.

A ultra-high-vacuum wafer-fusion-bonding system

The design of heterojunction devices is typically limited by material integration constraints and the energy band alignment. Wafer bonding can be used to integrate material pairs that cannot be epitaxially grown together due to large lattice mismatch. Control of the energy band alignment can be provided by formation of interface dipoles through control of the surface chemistry. We have developed an ultra-high-vacuum system for wafer-fusion-bonding semiconductors with in situ control and measurement of surface properties relevant to interface dipoles. A wafer-fusion-bonding chamber with annealing capabilities was integrated into an ultra-high-vacuum system with a sputtering chamber and an x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy system for preparing and measuring the surface chemistry of wafers prior to bonding. The design of the system along with initial results for the fusion-bonded InGaAs/Si heterojunction is presented.

Mechanisms for Carbon Adsorption on Au(110)-(2 × 1): A Work Function Analysis

Abstract The variation of the work function upon carbon adsorption on the reconstructed Au(110) surface is measured experimentally and compared to density functional calculations. The adsorption dynamics is simulated with ab-initio molecular dynamics techniques. The contribution of various energetically available adsorption sites on the deposition process is analyzed, and the work function behavior with carbon coverage is explained by the resultant electron charge density distributions.