In trapped-ion systems quantum information is processed using normal modes of motion.  Cooling down to the absolute ground state these motional degrees of freedom is crucial to enhance gate fidelities and to scale up quantum simulators. In this paper we develop a new EIT cooling scheme that works on ions with a “tripod” atomic structure which have pristine nuclear spin qubits. Check out on Phys. Rev. Lett. how to ground-state cool up to 80 harmonic modes in a 40 ion chain in only 300 µs!

• Efficient ground-state cooling of large trapped-ion chains with an EIT tripod scheme: L. Feng, W. L. Tan, A. De, A. Menon, A.Chu, G. Pagano, C. Monroe, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 053001 (2020).