Abstract
Measuring and understanding electric-field noise from bulk material and surfaces is important for many areas of physics. In this work, we demonstrate the probing of electric-field noise from different sources with an ion, above the trap surface. We detect noise levels as small as at and . Our setup incorporates a controllable noise source utilizing a high-temperature superconductor. This element allows us, first, to benchmark and validate the sensitivity of our probe. Second, it allows us to probe noninvasively the bulk properties of the superconductor, observing a superconducting transition with an ion. For temperatures below the transition, we use our setup to assess different surface noise processes. The measured surface noise shows a deviation from a power law in the frequency domain. However, the temperature scaling of the data is not in a good agreement with existing surface noise models. Our results open perspectives for models in surface science and pave the way to test them experimentally.
- Received 2 May 2018
- Revised 20 July 2018
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.99.023405
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