Barium Autoionization for Efficient Ion Trap Loading

Zachary J. Wall; Justin D. Piel; Samuel R. Vizvary; Michael Bareian; Steven Diaz; Elijah Mossman; Anthony Ransford; Chris H. Greene; Eric R. Hudson; Wesley C. Campbell

arXiv · 2512.12191

Barium Autoionization for Efficient Ion Trap Loading

Zachary J. Wall·Justin D. Piel·Samuel R. Vizvary·Michael Bareian·Steven Diaz·Elijah Mossman·Anthony Ransford·Chris H. Greene·Eric R. Hudson·Wesley C. Campbell

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Abstract

We report a theoretical and experimental investigation of autoionizing resonances from the $5d6p\,{}^3\mathrm{D}_1^o$ manifold in neutral barium for efficient loading of ion traps. Our calculations predict large resonant cross sections for many narrow autoionizing resonances, but we find experimentally that for most of these, Doppler broadening during trap loading depresses the effective cross sections that can be achieved in practice. We identify and demonstrate a strong, broad transition at $531\,\mathrm{nm}$, and show that it furnishes an order-of-magnitude increase in trap loading efficiency compared to other demonstrated resonances.

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Zachary J. Wall, Justin D. Piel, Samuel R. Vizvary, Michael Bareian, Steven Diaz, Elijah Mossman, Anthony Ransford, Chris H. Greene, Eric R. Hudson, Wesley C. Campbell. 2025-12-13. Barium Autoionization for Efficient Ion Trap Loading. https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.12191

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