A versatile multi-tone laser system for manipulating atomic qubits based on a fiber Mach-Zehnder modulator and second...

Stimulated Raman transition is a fundamental method to coherently manipulate quantum states in different physical systems. Phase-coherent dichromatic radiation fields matching the energy level splitting are the key to realizing stimulated Raman transition. Here we demonstrate a flexible-tuning, spectrum-clean and fiber-compatible method to generate a highly phase-coherent and high-power multi-tone laser. This method features the utilization of a broadband fiber Mach-Zehnder modulator working at carrier suppression condition and second harmonic generation. We generate a multi-tone continuous-wave 532 nm laser with a power of 1.5 Watts and utilize it to manipulate the spin and motional states of a trapped ¹⁷¹Yb⁺ ion via stimulated Raman transition. For spin state manipulation, we acquire an effective Rabi frequency of 2π × 662.3 kHz. Due to the broad bandwidth of the fiber modulator and nonlinear crystal, the frequency gap between tones can be flexibly tuned. Benefiting from the features above, this method can manipulate ¹⁷¹Yb⁺ and ¹³⁷Ba⁺ simultaneously in the multi-species ion trap and has potential to be widely applied in atomic, molecular and optical physics.