Hello all:
Had a great time at the HCC2009!
I thought I would share the NIST tour with you and thank Mark Ringrose for organizing the tour.
actual link to the quantum lab info at NIST
The tour was composed of two parts; the Atomic clock lab and the Quantum computer lab. With that in mind the following are a series of pictures of the Quantum Computer research facility.
They include a series of pictures (powerpoint) on a research computer as part of a presentation. The slides were explained in greater detail by one of the researchers (the name escapes me but someone will supply it I am sure, it may have been Dietrich Leibfried). Once the slide show was completed we made our way around to the laser system (red and green) which are used to guide the ions into the ion traps.
Without further ado here are the slides and the laser plus ion trap sections photos:
Just kidding!! but here are two examples of the ion traps
here is the laser set up section. These lasers are used to control the position and guide the ions (alumina) into the traps. So far they have been able to control up to six ions per trap and a facility in Europe (Switzerland?) has controlled up to 8 (?). Some one else can fill in the question marks as it was noisey in there!
The red laser section
The green laser section.
The business end where the ion trap resides (vertical cylinder):
Can anyone explain the box of crayons!
Tomorrow the atomic clock and when I can a write up of the HCC2009.
Cheers, Geoff
Edited: 6 Oct 2009, 8:23 p.m.