Quantum Information Processing with Ytterbium Ions and a Frequency Comb in a Surface Trap

Microfabricated surface ion traps are one of the key components for building a trapped ion quantum information processor.These multi-segmented traps are fabricated using existing silicon processing technology and can provide the fields to store a chain of ions and shuttle ions within the trap structure. Using a surface trap microfabricated by Sandia National Laboratories [1] we trap individual Yb-171 ions and demonstrate fundamental quantum information processing primitives. Low light scatter from the trap and the use of photon arrival times during fluorescence state detection enables a state detection fidelity of 98\%. High fidelity rotations of the hyperfine clock state qubit have been performed using a resonant microwave field. Furthermore, we have realized single qubit rotations using Raman transitions driven by a repetition-rate stabilized frequency comb, a prerequisite for realizing motional gates with frequency combs [2]. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) mirrors will be used to focus Raman laser beams on individual ions in a chain to perform single qubit gates. MEMS beam steering systems can easily be scaled to multiple beams to realize two-ion gates between arbitrary ions in the chain.\\[4pt] [1] D Stick et al., arXiv:1008.0990v2 2010\\[0pt] [2] D Hayes et al., PRL 104(14)2010