Alignment requirements of Fabry-Perot microresonators for ion trap quantum information processing (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

In recent years there has been rapid progress into realising a working universal quantum computer, in particular with the development of chip-based radio frequency (RF) ion traps. The next significant leap will come with successfully integrating optical cavities into these ion traps to allow for interaction between remote ions via photons as required for more efficient and scalable quantum networking schemes. Fibre-tip cavities are especially interesting for such applications as they enable highly efficient coupling of photons from the cavity into optical fibres for onward transmission [1]. Ideally, one would like to operate such micro-resonators in the near-concentric regime that provides the smallest cavity mode waist and thus strongest coupling to a trapped ion. However, the cavity mode becomes unstable in this limit, and in practice ion-cavity systems are often operated far away from this regime.