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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Number-resolved detection of dark ions in Coulomb crystals

Fabian Schmid1,*, Johannes Weitenberg1, Jorge Moreno1, Theodor W. Hänsch1,2, Thomas Udem1,2, and Akira Ozawa1,†

  • 1Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, 85748 Garching, Germany
  • 2Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80799 München, Germany

  • *fabian.schmid@mpq.mpg.de
  • †akira.ozawa@mpq.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. A 106, L041101 – Published 4 October, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.106.L041101

Abstract

While it is straightforward to count laser-cooled trapped ions by fluorescence imaging, detecting the number of dark ions embedded and sympathetically cooled in a mixed ion crystal is more challenging. We demonstrate a method to track the number of dark ions in real time with single-particle sensitivity. This is achieved by observing discrete steps in the amount of fluorescence emitted from the coolant ions while exciting secular motional resonances of dark ions. By counting the number of fluorescence steps, we can identify the number of dark ions without calibration and without relying on any physical model of the motional excitation. We demonstrate the scheme by detecting H2+ and H3+ ions embedded in a Be+ ion Coulomb crystal in a linear radio-frequency trap. Our method allows observing the generation and destruction of individual ions simultaneously for different types of ions. Besides high-resolution spectroscopy of dark ions, another application is the detection of chemical reactions in real time with single-particle sensitivity. This is demonstrated in this Letter.

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Phys. Rev. A 106, L041101– Published 4 October, 2022
  • Received 9 December 2021
  • Accepted 9 September 2022
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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