Development of necessary ion traps, vacuum and laser systems for photoionization, laser cooling and quantum state engineering of trapped strontium ions

The ability to trap individual isolated ions provides an opportunity to experimentally test the foundations of quantum mechanics. Observation of quantum jumps for a single ion using the Dehmelt shelving scheme yield a means of testing, with a single resettable degree of freedom, on the inherent randomness of quantum mechanics. An investigation of the consequences of a purely quantum phenomena as quantum teleportation, entanglement, especially as they relate to the goals of quantum computing has been facilitated by geometries where a larger number of ions can be trapped and stabilized.; Two particle entangled states have been realized in both cavity and in ion traps. In cavity QED information is transferred between the electronic states of various atoms via the modes of the cavity. Challenges presented to this approach include, the short confinement times and the need to achieve high-Q (so that the decoherence time is sufficiently long until the conditional dynamics is performed). In an ion trap containing multiple ions, the motional quantum levels are determined by the potential well as modified by the mutual coulomb interaction. These ladder states then serve as a memory for quantum information. The difficulty then is the achievement of a joint motional ground state and the problem with heating of the ions.; A long term goal of this research effort is to combine the control facilitated by ion traps with the virtual excitation of a high-Q cavity which is then used as bus for quantum memory.; A significant milestone in achieving the above goal is the development of reliable vacuum systems, imaging system, feedback loops, trap designs and laser systems needed to photoionize, Doppler cool and trap a single strontium ion.; This work describes in detail the construction of the above instruments and the initial success necessary for the achievement of our long term goals.