Linear mode-mixing of phonons with trapped ions

We propose a method to manipulate the normal modes in a chain of trapped ions using only two lasers. Linear chains of trapped ions have proven experimentally to be highly controllable quantum systems with a variety of refined techniques for preparation, evolution, and readout; however, typically for quantum information processing applications people have been interested in using the internal levels of the ions as the computational basis. We analyze the case where the motional degrees of freedom of the ions are the quantum system of interest, and where the internal levels are leveraged to facilitate interactions. In particular, we focus on an analysis of mode-mixing of phonons in different normal modes to mimic the quantum optical equivalent of a beam splitter.