2000 character limit reached
Trapping and Ground-State Cooling of a Single H$_2^+$ (2212.06456v2)
Published 13 Dec 2022 in physics.atom-ph, physics.chem-ph, and quant-ph
Abstract: We demonstrate co-trapping and sideband cooling of a H$2+$ - $9$Be$+$ ion pair in a cryogenic Paul trap. We study the chemical lifetime of H$_2+$ and its dependence on the apparatus temperature, achieving lifetimes of up to $11{+6}{-3}$ h at 10 K. We demonstrate cooling of two of the modes of translational motion to an average phonon number of 0.07(1) and 0.05(1), corresponding to a temperature of 22(1) $\mu$K and 55(3) $\mu$K respectively. Our results provide a basis for quantum logic spectroscopy experiments of H$_2+$, as well as other light ions such as HD$+$, H$_3+$, and He$+$.