Structural phase transitions and topological defects in ion Coulomb crystals

Partner, Heather L.¹  Nigmatullin, Ramil²  Burgermeister, Tobias¹  Keller 

[1] Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig (Germany);Institute of Quantum Physics, Ulm Univ., Ulm (Germany)

关键词: ION COULOMB CRYSTALS;    KINK SOLUTIONS;    TOPOLOGICAL DEFECTS;    KIBBLE-ZUREK MECHANISM;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1164430
RP-ID  :  LA-UR-14-28965
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1164430

学科分类：物理（综合）

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

We use laser-cooled ion Coulomb crystals in the well-controlled environment of a harmonic radiofrequency ion trap to investigate phase transitions and defect formation. Topological defects in ion Coulomb crystals (kinks) have been recently proposed for studies of nonlinear physics with solitons and as carriers of quantum information. Defects form when a symmetry breaking phase transition is crossed non-adiabatically. For a second order phase transition, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts that the formation of these defects follows a power law scaling in the rate of the transition. We demonstrate a scaling of defect density and describe kink dynamics and stability. We further discuss the implementation of mass defects and electric fields as first steps toward controlled kink preparation and manipulation.