Efficient sympathetic cooling in mixed barium and ytterbium ion chains

Abstract: We study sympathetic cooling of the radial ion motion in a linear RF trap in mixed barium-ytterbium chains. Barium ions are Doppler-cooled, while ytterbium ions are cooled through their interaction with cold barium ions. We estimate the efficiency of sympathetic cooling by measuring the average occupation quantum numbers, and thus the temperature, of all radial normal modes of motion in the ion chain. The full set of orderings in a chain of two barium and two ytterbium ions have been probed, and we show that the average thermal occupation numbers for all chain configurations strongly depend on the trap aspect ratio. We demonstrate efficient sympathetic cooling of all radial normal modes for the trap aspect ratio of approximately 2.9.