Probing surface electric field noise with a single ion

We report room-temperature electric field noise measurements combined with in-situ surface characterization and cleaning of a microfabricated ion trap. We used a single-ion electric field noise sensor in combination with surface cleaning and analysis tools, to investigate the relationship between electric field noise from metal surfaces in vacuum and the composition of the surface. These experiments were performed in a novel setup that integrates ion trapping capabilities with surface analysis tools. We find that surface cleaning of an aluminum-copper surface significantly reduces the level of electric field noise, but the surface does not need to be atomically clean to show noise levels comparable to those of the best cryogenic traps. The post-cleaning noise levels are low enough to allow fault-tolerant trapped-ion quantum information processing on a microfabricated surface trap.