How to trap ions for quantum computing?

Trapped ion quantum computers is at the forefront of the field due to its relatively long coherence times, which means qubits are long-lived, and they can easily interact and entangled with their neighbors. Companies like Quantinuum, previously from Honeywell, and Ion Q, and research lab NIST are at the forefront of this research. In this video, we discuss the basic physics of ionizing the atom and doppler cooling. We discuss why you cannot trap an ion with an electrostatic field, a result called Earnshaw’s theorem. This then led us to the Paul trap, which allows for ions trapping using a time varying electric field. The goal is to form a cooled ion lattice as shown, the platform for quantum computation. Our focus here will be on ions trapping, and the physics of doing quantum computation with these ions will be discussed in an upcoming video.

Technical Content: Johnathas Forte, Tony Low
Video Production: Katie Low, Tony Low