Trapped Ion Architecture For Multi-Dimensional Quantum Simulations

A rich and powerful toolbox for individually trapped atomic ions is available for quantum information processing, including quantum metrology and quantum simulation, demonstrating control with highest fidelities. Building on this success, a novel architecture for analog quantum simulations aims at setting up fully controlled and reconfigurable quantum lattices by individually trapped ions in multi-dimensional arrangements. In this article, an overview of recent developments and demonstrations of prototype operations is given. The features and limitations of the architecture are discussed and crucial steps toward mid and long-term simulation applications are laid out.