Microfabricated piezo-optomechanical switches for trapped ion quantum computing

Quantum information processors and atomic clocks based on trapped ions continue to push towards more complex systems with demanding I/O, size, and power requirements. These demands motivate the replacement of external optical conditioning elements, such as amplitude, phase, frequency modulators, with integrated versions on the same chip. Here, we test a promising solution, a microfabricated piezo-optomechanical Mach-Zehnder modulator that is compatible with monolithic integration of surface ion traps^[1-2].We demonstrate the degree of amplitude and phase control necessary for quantum operations, testing directly on a trapped ion apparatus.



[1] P. R. Stanfield, et al, Opt. Express 27, 28588 (2019)

[2] M. Dong, et al., Nature Photonics 16 (1), 59-65 (2021)