Control of a Cloud of Laser-Cooled ⁴⁰Ca+ in a Linear Ion Trap

A cloud of laser-cooled ^40_Ca+ is successfully trapped and manipulated under well control in our home-built linear ion trap, which is designed and constructed solely for studying quantum information processing. By exploring the variation of the ion cloud with respect to the trap parameters, we have optimized the trapping condition and obtained very good fluorescence spectra. We observe the dynamics of the ion cloud, and estimate the temperature of the ion cloud to be of the order of milli-Kelvin.