Design and Computer Simulations of Surface Ion Traps

Abstract

Quantum computation is a field where computational tasks are handled by leveraging the quantum mechanical principles, such as, using superposition and entanglement. Unlike classical computers the information is handled in quantum computers using quantum bits or qubits. There are various platforms for implementing the quantum information processing (QIP) and QIP using trapped ions is one of them. It uses ions confined in the space as a qubit to achieve the QIP. To confine the ions, an ion trap is used, specifically the Paul ion trap which is the trap studied in this thesis. Paul ion trap uses time-dependent electric fields and additional DC electrodes to confine the ions in three dimensions. One of the implementations of the Paul ion trap is a Surface or planar ion trap. It is a deviation of the standard hyperbolic geometry of the Paul ion trap. Surface traps are extensively used in QIP due to its various advantages. These advantages include that this structure is promising in scaling the quantum information processors, it provides fabrication flexibility and provides way to realize complex electrode structures. The surface ion trap can be characterized by essential parameters such as, pseudopotential variation above the trap, pseudopotential minimum above the trap, trap depth and secular frequencies. Through this thesis, I intend to study the surface ion traps and do the analysis of these traps to find the essential parameters to characterize the trap.