Our longer term work in the lab will involve studying heat flow in mixed-species chains of two isotopes of calcium ions.\u00a0 To build these chains with a particular isotopic sequence, we will load one ion into the trap at a time; by selecting a particular photoionization laser frequency we can select one isotope or the other.\u00a0 The loaded ion is then shuttled across the trap to a `storage’ well, distant from the trap’s loading slot.\u00a0 We’ve recently developed new waveforms (sets of voltages we apply sequentially to the trap electrodes) that allow us to sequentially merge ions into a composite chain.\u00a0 Here’s a movie showing the loading of a six-ion chain put together by Ashay Patel ’18:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/ion\/files\/2018\/03\/six_ion_chain_load-300x185.png\")
<\/a>Movie of merging and splitting chains. Click to view.<\/p><\/div>\n
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Our longer term work in the lab will involve studying heat flow in mixed-species chains of two isotopes of calcium ions.\u00a0 To build these chains with a particular isotopic sequence, we will load one ion into the trap at a … Continue reading