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We report the optical trapping of multiple ions localized at individual lattice sites of a one-dimensional optical lattice. We observe a fivefold increase in robustness against axial DC-electric fields and an increase of the axial eigenfrequency by two orders of magnitude compared to an optical dipole trap without interference but similar intensity. Our findings motivate an alternative pathway to extend arrays of trapped ions in size and dimension, enabling quantum simulations with particles interacting at long range., Comment: 7 Pages, 5 Figures

For conventional ion traps, the trapping potential is close to independent of the electronic state, providing confinement for ions dependent primarily on their charge-to-mass ratio $Q/m$. In contrast, storing ions within an optical dipole trap results in state-dependent confinement. Here we experimentally study optical dipole potentials for $^{138}\mathrm{Ba}^+$ ions stored within two distinctive traps operating at 532 nm and 1064 nm. We prepare the ions in either the $6\mathrm{S}_{\mathrm{1/2}}$ electronic ground or the $5\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{3/2}}$/ $5\mathrm{D}_{\mathrm{5/2}}$ metastable excited state and probe the relative strength and polarity of the potential. On the one hand, we apply our findings to selectively remove ions from a Coulomb crystal, despite all ions sharing the same $Q/m$. On the other hand, we deterministically purify the trapping volume from parasitic ions in higher-energy orbits, resulting in reliable isolation of Coulomb crystals down to a single ion within a radio-frequency trap., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

We report on a method for measuring ac Stark shifts observed in stored light experiments while simultaneously determining the energetic splitting between the electronic ground states involved in the two-photon transition. To this end we make use of the frequency matching effect in light storage spectroscopy. We find a linear dependence on the intensity of the control field applied during the retrieval phase of the experiment. At the same time, we observe that the light shift is insensitive to the intensity of the signal field which is in contrast to continuously operated schemes using electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) or coherent population trapping (CPT). Our results may be of importance for future light storage-based precision measurements with EIT and CPT-type devices where, in contrast to schemes using continuous exposure to optical fields, the impact of intensity fluctuations from the signal field can be suppressed.

We study a method for mass-selective removal of ions from a Paul trap by parametric excitation. This can be achieved by applying an oscillating electric quadrupole field at twice the secular frequency $\omega_{\text{sec}}$ using pairs of opposing electrodes. While excitation near the resonance with the frequency $\omega_{\text{sec}}$ only leads to a linear increase of the amplitude with excitation duration, parametric excitation near $2\, \omega_{\text{sec}}$ results in an exponential increase of the amplitude. This enables efficient removal of ions from the trap with modest excitation voltages and narrow bandwidth, therefore substantially reducing the disturbance of ions with other charge-to-mass ratios. We numerically study and compare the mass selectivity of the two methods. In addition, we experimentally show that the barium isotopes with 136 and 137 nucleons can be removed from small ion crystals and ejected out of the trap while keeping $^{138}\text{Ba}^{+}$ ions Doppler cooled, corresponding to a mass selectivity of better than $\Delta m / m = 1/138$. This method can be widely applied to ion trapping experiments without major modifications, since it only requires modulating the potential of the ion trap.