Application of a self-injection locked cyan laser for Barium ion cooling and spectroscopy.

Compact, high power lasers with narrow linewidth are important tools for the manipulation of quantum systems. We demonstrate a compact, self-injection locked, Fabry-Perot semiconductor laser diode with high output power at 493 nm. A high quality factor magnesium fluoride whispering gallery mode resonator enables both high passive stability and 1 kHz instantaneous linewidth.

Spectroscopy of a Synthetic Trapped Ion Qubit.

^{133}Ba^{+} has been identified as an attractive ion for quantum information processing due to the unique combination of its spin-1/2 nucleus and visible wavelength electronic transitions. Using a microgram source of radioactive material, we trap and laser cool the synthetic A=133 radioisotope of barium II in a radio-frequency ion trap. Using the same, single trapped atom, we measure the isotope shifts and hyperfine structure of the 6^{2}P_{1/2}↔6^{2}S_{1/2} and 6^{2}P_{1/2}↔5^{2}D_{3/2} electronic transitions that are needed for laser cooling, state preparation, and state detection of the clock-state hyperfine and optical qubits.

Beat note stabilization of mode-locked lasers for quantum information processing.

We stabilize a chosen radio frequency beat note between two optical fields derived from the same mode-locked laser pulse train in order to coherently manipulate quantum information. This scheme does not require access or active stabilization of the laser repetition rate. We implement and characterize this external lock, in the context of two-photon stimulated Raman transitions between the hyperfine ground states of trapped 171Yb(+) quantum bits.

Coherent error suppression in multiqubit entangling gates.

We demonstrate a simple pulse shaping technique designed to improve the fidelity of spin-dependent force operations commonly used to implement entangling gates in trapped ion systems. This extension of the Mølmer-Sørensen gate can theoretically suppress the effects of certain frequency and timing errors to any desired order and is demonstrated through Walsh modulation of a two qubit entangling gate on trapped atomic ions. The technique is applicable to any system of qubits coupled through collective harmonic oscillator modes.

Ultrafast gates for single atomic qubits.

We demonstrate single-qubit operations on a trapped atom hyperfine qubit using a single ultrafast pulse from a mode-locked laser. We shape the pulse from the laser and perform a π rotation of the qubit in less than 50 ps with a population transfer exceeding 99% and negligible effects from spontaneous emission or ac Stark shifts. The gate time is significantly shorter than the period of atomic motion in the trap (Ω(Rabi)/ν(trap)>10(4)), demonstrating that this interaction takes place deep within the strong excitation regime.

Entanglement of atomic qubits using an optical frequency comb.

We demonstrate the use of an optical frequency comb to coherently control and entangle atomic qubits. A train of off-resonant ultrafast laser pulses is used to efficiently and coherently transfer population between electronic and vibrational states of trapped atomic ions and implement an entangling quantum logic gate with high fidelity. This technique can be extended to the high field regime where operations can be performed faster than the trap frequency.

Spin gradient thermometry for ultracold atoms in optical lattices.

We demonstrate spin gradient thermometry, a new general method of measuring the temperature of ultracold atoms in optical lattices. We realize a mixture of spins separated by a magnetic field gradient. Measurement of the width of the transition layer between the two spin domains serves as a new method of thermometry which is observed to work over a broad range of lattice depths and temperatures, including in the Mott insulator regime.

In situ electron microscopy studies of the sintering of palladium nanoparticles on alumina during catalyst regeneration processes.

Sintering of a palladium catalyst supported on alumina (Al2O3) in an oxidizing environment was studied by in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In the case of a fresh catalyst, sintering of Pd particles on an alumina surface in a 500 mTorr steam environment happened via traditional ripening or migration and coalescence mechanisms and was not significant unless heating above 500 degrees C. After the catalyst was used for the hydrogenation of alkynes, TEM coupled with convergent beam electron diffraction and electron energy loss spectroscopy analysis revealed that most of the Pd particles were lifted from the alumina surface by hydrocarbon buildup.