Enhancing Coherent Spin-Motion and Spin-Spin Interactions through Optomechanical Tuning with additional High-Fidelity Imaging for Two-Dimensional Ion Crystals in Penning Traps

Trapped ions are a promising candidate for quantum simulation and sensing technologies, offering access to long-lived quantum systems with straightforward controllability via optical and microwave fields. Achieving a delicate balance between coherent and incoherent interactions is imperative to harness the full potential of trapped ions. This study presents an optomechanical and detection system that enables adjustment of coherent spin-motion and spin-spin interactions and high-fidelity imaging in two-dimensional ion crystals confined in a Penning trap.

The system incorporates active optical positioners in the limited space of a superconducting magnet, allowing precise tuning of the optical angle-of-incidence on the ion crystals [1]. When combined with electromagnetically induced transparency cooling, the experimental results show a two-fold increase in coherent to incoherent interaction strength. Notably, the system exhibits stability of 2 x 10-3 degrees per hour, validating its suitability for long-duration experiments and highlighting its significance for future quantum simulations and sensing applications.

Additionally, we present a method for achieving high-fidelity state discrimination and precise localization of dynamic 2D ion crystals [2]. Our approach combines a high-data-rate, spatially-resolving, timestamping detector with a neural network to identify individual ion positions. State determination is performed using a maximum likelihood method, resulting in detection fidelities of 94(2)% for crystals containing 110 ions.The presented methodologies offer a robust and scalable framework for exploring the capabilities of trapped ion-based quantum systems in a variety of quantum simulation and sensing applications.