Quantum Nanomechanics with Trapped Ion Motion | Qiskit Quantum Seminar with Daniel Slichter

Quantum nanomechanics with trapped ion motion
Episode 176

Abstract:

Trapped atomic ions can host highly coherent, readily-controllable qubits and qudits in their internal degrees of freedom; these are widely used for quantum computing, sensing, and networking applications. However, trapped ions also possess quantized motional degrees of freedom. These single-ion or few-ion nanomechanical quantum harmonic oscillators can be cooled very near their ground states and manipulated by externally applied fields or by coupling to the ions’ internal states. Trapped ion motional modes are most commonly used in an auxiliary role to couple the internal states of multiple ions, but there is increasing interest in exploring them as stand-alone, coherent quantum harmonic oscillators.

I will describe recent work in our group on several projects that use trapped ion motion as a quantum nanomechanical oscillator. We have created highly squeezed states of trapped ion motion, enabling us to perform quantum-enhanced sensing and to speed up quantum dynamics involving the motion. We have also demonstrated various forms of coherent coupling, state exchange, and entanglement between multiple motional modes. This coupling can enable repeated non-destructive measurement of motional states by avoiding the motional state decoherence associated with photon recoil during fluorescence readout. Finally, we are using the motion of a single trapped ion as a quantum sensor to understand and mitigate sources of electric field noise from material surfaces, using a special trap that enables the study of interchangeable samples.

Bio:

Daniel Slichter is a physicist in the Ion Storage Group at NIST in Boulder, Colorado. His research focuses on quantum information experiments with trapped atomic ions, with an emphasis on developing new paradigms for scalable trapped ion quantum computing and creating long-distance quantum networks with trapped ion memory and computation nodes. He received his A.B. in physics (2004) from Harvard University, and his M.A. (2007) and Ph.D. (2011) in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. His Ph.D. research was in the field of superconducting quantum information, where he demonstrated the first continuous high-fidelity measurement of a superconducting qubit, and studied quantum feedback, measurement backaction, and near-quantum-limited parametric amplification.