Events

Title：Precision Spectroscopy on Ion Coulomb Crystals
Speaker： T.E. Mehlstäubler
Time： 2018-04-17 14:00-2018-04-17 15:30
Venue：MMW S527

Abstract:

Ion traps are a versatile tool for a broad range of applications, such as quantum information and optical clocks. They offer a well-controlled experimental environment in which single ions can be stored and manipulated. If the ions are cooled to energies lower than the potential energy of the Coulomb system, they form crystals, which can be used as quantum simulators or emulators for non-equilibrium statistical physics.

A great advantage of trapped ion crystals is the in-situ access to the dynamics of the atomic particles, which are often not accessible in the emulated system. We emulate the boundary of two atomically flat solids with a self-assembled ion Coulomb crystal in the zigzag phase and study the nanofriction between these back-acting ion chains. In this system, we study second-order phase transitions and the formation and dynamics of topological defects [1-3].

When controlling the dynamics of ion Coulomb crystals to a high level of precision, they can also serve as a platform for novel types of atomic quantum clocks. We present latest results on our measurements of systematic frequency shifts in such a system [4].

[1] Pyka et al., Nat. Commun. 4, 2291 (2013)

[2] Partner et al., New J. Phys. 15, 103013 (2013)

[3] Kiethe et al., Nat. Commun. 8, 15364 (2017)

[4] Keller et al., arXiv 1712.02335  (2017)



Short Bio:

Dr. T.E. Mehlstäubler is an independent research group leader at PTB, Braunschweig and a lecturer at the University of Hannover. She did the undergraduate study at the physics department of Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg, the master at SUNY Stony Brook, and the Ph. D at the University of Hannover with Prof. W. Ertmer. She has the post-doc. experience at LNE-SYRTE, Paris. Since 2009, she joined the QUEST in PTB as a faculty and pursued the atomic ion clock with multiple ions.