Coherent control of trapped ions using off-resonant lasers

Abstract

In this paper we develop a unified framework to study the coherent control of trapped ions subject to state-dependent forces. Taking different limits in our theory, we can reproduce previous designs of quantum gates and propose a different design of fast gates based on continuous laser beams. We demonstrate how to simulate Ising Hamiltonians in a many ions setup, and how to create highly entangled states and induce squeezing. Finally, in a detailed analysis we identify the physical limits of this technique and study the dependence of errors on the temperature.