Robert McConnell

Collective State Measurement of Mesoscopic Ensembles with Single-Atom Resolution

We demonstrate single-atom resolution, as well as detection sensitivity more than 20 dB below the quantum projection noise limit, for hyperfine-state-selective measurements on mesoscopic ensembles containing 100 or more atoms. The measurement detects the atom-induced shift of the resonance frequency of an optical cavity containing the ensemble. While spatially varying coupling of atoms to the cavity prevents the direct observation of a quantized signal, the demonstrated measurement resolution provides the readout capability necessary for atomic interferometry substantially below the standard quantum limit and down to the Heisenberg limit.

Integrated optical addressing of an ion qubit

The long coherence times and strong Coulomb interactions afforded by trapped ion qubits have enabled realizations of the necessary primitives for quantum information processing and the highest-fidelity quantum operations in any qubit to date. Although light delivery to each individual ion in a system is essential for general quantum manipulations and readout, experiments so far have employed optical systems that are cumbersome to scale to even a few tens of qubits. Here we demonstrate lithographically defined nanophotonic waveguide devices for light routing and ion addressing that are fully integrated within a surface-electrode ion trap chip. Ion qubits are addressed at multiple locations via focusing grating couplers emitting through openings in the trap electrodes to ions trapped 50 μm above the chip; using this light, we perform quantum coherent operations on the optical qubit transition in individual 88Sr+ ions. The grating focuses the beam to a diffraction-limited spot near the ion position with 2 μm 1/e2 radius along the trap axis, and we measure crosstalk errors between 10-2 and 4 × 10-4 at distances 7.5-15 μm from the beam centre. Owing to the scalability of the planar fabrication technique employed, together with the tight focusing and stable alignment afforded by the integration of the optics within the trap chip, this approach presents a path to creating the optical systems required for large-scale trapped-ion quantum information processing.

Scalable loading of a two-dimensional trapped-ion array

Two-dimensional arrays of trapped-ion qubits are attractive platforms for scalable quantum information processing. Sufficiently rapid reloading capable of sustaining a large array, however, remains a significant challenge. Here with the use of a continuous flux of pre-cooled neutral atoms from a remotely located source, we achieve fast loading of a single ion per site while maintaining long trap lifetimes and without disturbing the coherence of an ion quantum bit in an adjacent site. This demonstration satisfies all major criteria necessary for loading and reloading extensive two-dimensional arrays, as will be required for large-scale quantum information processing. Moreover, the already high loading rate can be increased by loading ions in parallel with only a concomitant increase in photo-ionization laser power and no need for additional atomic flux.

Reduction of trapped ion anomalous heating by in situ surface plasma cleaning

United States. Dept. of Defense. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (United States. Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002)

Strictly nonclassical behavior of a mesoscopic system

We experimentally demonstrate the strictly nonclassical behavior in a many-atom system using a recently derived criterion [E. Kot et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 233601 (2012)] that explicitly does not make use of quantum mechanics. We thereby show that the magnetic moment distribution measured by McConnell et al. [R. McConnell et al., Nature 519, 439 (2015)] in a system with a total mass of

Solid-State Integrated Optics for Large-Scale Trapped-Ion Quantum Information Processing

2.6\times 10^5

Entanglement with negative Wigner function of three thousand atoms heralded by one photon

atomic mass units is inconsistent with classical physics. Notably, the strictly nonclassical behavior affects an area in phase space

Erratum: Entanglement with negative Wigner function of almost 3,000 atoms heralded by one photon

10^3

Entanglement with negative Wigner function of almost 3,000 atoms heralded by one photon

times larger than the Planck quantum

Generating entangled spin states for quantum metrology by single-photon detection

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