Supervisors: Winfried Hensinger and Richard Thompson

Next generation ion chips for scalable ion quantum technology

My PhD research investigates the development of a scalable ion trap quantum computer, in collaboration with the Ion Quantum Technology (IQT) group at the University of Sussex.

One part of my research is focused on the group's entanglement experiments. We use a linear blade radio-frequency (RF) trap with incorporated rare-earth magnets to perform coherent manipulation of the states of ions using microwave radiation, within the Magnetic Gradient Inducing Coupling (MAGIC) scheme developed by Christof Wunderlich and Florian Mintert. We have also developed the use of dressed-states, which are insensitive to magnetic field strength fluctuations, to increase the coherence time of the ions when using this microwave scheme.

To date, the group has used this setup to demonstrate coherent manipulation of trapped ions, individual addressing of ions in frequency space, resolved motional sideband transitions in the bare and dressed-states, and Schrödinger cat experiments.  My research in this area continues our work towards scalable entanglement: performing Mølmer-Sørensen gates by addressing ions with pulses of microwave radiation.

The group also designs and manufactures surface electrode ion traps, motivated by increasing the scalability of ion traps and investigating new ion trapping geometries for purposes including quantum simulation and cluster state generation. Previously, the group has fabricated and operated the first 2D ion-trapping lattice microchip. I am working on an experiment operating an ion ring trap, which was designed and fabricated by a member of the IQT group. This trap has applications in studying quantum systems including the Homogenous Kibble-Zurek mechanism, Hawking radiation and space-time crystals.

In the coming year, I will be focused on performing experiments the next generation of the IQT group's ion trapping chips, which will be fabricated at the end of 2013, including versatile linear traps, X-junctions, square arrays and ring traps. These traps also include a completely new design that incorporates current carrying conductor regions below the trapping electrodes to create large magnetic field gradients at the position of the trapped ions.

Posters

• Development of advanced ion trap chips for quantum information and simulation, Ion Tech 2 (IHP Paris), October 2013
• Simple manipulation of a microwave dressed-state qubit towards scalable high fidelity multi-ion entanglement, Ion Tech 2 (IHP Paris), October 2013
• Quantum logic with microwaves and ion chips for scalable quantum technology, QuICC (Imperial College London), September 2013 

Presentations

• A scalable approach to quantum logic operations, IQT group (University of Sussex), October 2013

Teaching

Associate Tutor – demonstration of second year undergraduate laboratory, September-December 2013