A flexible optimization method for scaling surface-electrode ion traps

Recent advances in scaling surface-electrode ion trap have demonstrated optimization of critical components, such as junctions and loading slots. In this study, a flexible method to systematically optimize the shape of radio frequency (rf) rails in different components was proposed. The rf rails were discretized in the electrostatic calculation; thus, the spatial fields of different components can be accumulated according to the superposition principle. The optimization process was accomplished by placing artificial control points along the edges of the rf rails, providing controllable degree of freedom. The locations of these control points were modified using ant colony optimization, which employs a proposed hybrid multi-objective function. The proposed method was verified with three kinds of components: an X junction, a Y junction, and a loading slot. Compared with the results obtained using non-optimized cases and the existing methods, the proposed method produced favorable results in maintaining the ion height and minimizing the axial pseudopotential barrier and rf noise heating. The proposed method can also be used to optimize other scaling components of surface-electrode ion traps.