Improved three-dimensional control of a single strontium ion in an endcap trap

An endcap ion trap is described for trapping and laser cooling of a single strontium-88 ion. The 422 nm cooling laser is offset locked to the Doppler-free 5s ²S_1/2(F^′′=2)–6p ²P_1/2(F^′=3) transition in ⁸⁵Rb using saturation spectroscopy. The peak fluorescence signal from a single ion is around 6.0×10⁴ counts/s with the cooling laser at saturation intensity. Optical pumping of the ion in zero magnetic field is eliminated by the use of two 1092 nm repumper laser beams incident on the ion to create a time-varying polarisation. The ion’s micromotion can be reduced in all three dimensions, and the motional sidebands on the weak 5s ²S_1/2–4d ²D_5/2 quadrupole transition in ⁸⁸Sr⁺ have been observed. These results show the ion to be confined to less than a wavelength in three dimensions.