A new ion trap opens quantum simulation to more labs

Trapped-ion quantum simulators are powerful — and fiddly. Rice University's Guido Pagano, with collaborators at Duke and Translume, has built a third-generation ion trap carved as a single monolithic piece: it matches the performance of hand-assembled traps while being reproducible like a chip, and it handles heavy ions such as ytterbium. Earlier versions suffered heating and micromotion problems; this one fixed both and behaved exactly as simulations predicted. Published in Physical Review Applied, it could put serious quantum simulation within reach of ordinary academic labs — for problems like how charge moves in photosynthesis.

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