Decoherence in trapped ions due to polarization of the residual backgroundgas - art. no. 033419

We investigate the mechanism of damping and heating of trapped ions associa ted with the polarization of the residual background gas induced by the osc illating ions themselves. Reasoning by analogy with the physics of surface electrons in liquid helium, we demonstrate that the decay of Rabi oscillati ons observed in experiments on Be-9(+) can be attributed to the polarizatio n phenomena investigated here. The measured sensitivity of the damping of R abi oscillations with respect to the vibrational quantum number of a trappe d ion is also predicted in our polarization model.