Ion trap frequency measurement from fluorescence dynamics

Abstract

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a new method for measuring the trap frequency from the fluorescence dynamics of an ion, initiated using fast trap-center displacement. Here, we observe the coherently excited motion of an ion in a harmonic trap using time-resolved fluorescence detection. Furthermore, Fourier analysis of the ion fluorescence signal was used to determine the trap frequency of an ion with high precision and reproducibility. The results show that our proposed method can be an alternative way to determine trap frequencies in an ion trap experiment.