*Updated* The animation depicts the process used at Lincoln Laboratory to confine single atomic ions near chips. In an ultra-high vacuum system, a hot atomic vapor is created by heating metal in an oven. This hot vapor is cooled at the intersection of six laser beams in a region in which a pair of copper coils produces a spatially varying magnetic field. The cooled, slowed atoms are then accelerated using another laser beam toward the trap chip. Ionizing and ion-cooling lasers are applied in the trap location, creating and cooling an ion there. Trapping fields are produced below the chip by applying electric fields to the patterned electrodes on its surface. Individual ions trapped in this way can be used for quantum information processing experiments, with the ultimate goal being the development of a quantum computer based on this technology.
