Transport of ions in a segmented linear Paul trap in printed-circuit-board technology

We describe the construction and operation of a segmented linear Paul trap, fabricated in printed-circuit-board technology with an electrode segment width of 500μm. We prove the applicability of this technology to reliable ion trapping and report the observation of Doppler-cooled ion crystals of 40Ca with this kind of trap. Measured trap frequencies agree with numerical simulations at the level of a few percent from which we infer a high fabrication accuracy of the segmented trap. To demonstrate its usefulness and versatility for trapped ion experiments we study the fast transport of a single ion. Our experimental results show a success rate of 99.0(1)% for a transport distance of 2× 2 mm in a round-trip time of T = 20μs, which corresponds to 4 axial oscillations only. We theoretically and experimentally investigate the excitation of oscillations caused by fast ion transports with error-function voltage ramps: for a slightly slower transport (a round-trip shuttle within T = 30μs) we observe non-adiabatic motional excitation of 0.89(15)meV. 1 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed. New Journal of Physics 10 (2008) 013004 1367-2630/08/013004+15$30.00 © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft