Shortcuts to adiabatic rotation of a two-ion chain

Abstract

We inverse engineer fast rotations of a transversally tight, linear trap with two ions for a predetermined rotation angle and time, avoiding final excitation. Different approaches are analyzed and compared when the ions are of the same species or of different species. The separability into dynamical normal modes for equal ions in a harmonic trap, or for different ions in non-harmonic traps with up to quartic terms allows for simpler computations of the rotation protocols. For non-separable scenarios, in particular for different ions in harmonic traps, rotation protocols are also found using more costly numerical optimisations.