Trapped ion chain heating from scattering of single photons

Distributing quantum computations among different trapped ion registers via Remote Entanglement Generation (REG) is a promising method for scaling trapped ion quantum computers. However, in the process of attempting REG, many photons are scattered off of an ion in a chain. This scattering process causes the ion chain to gain motional quanta which results in infidelity in subsequent entangling gates. In our experiment, we can produce and measure single photons from a Sr88+ trapped atomic ion, which we have demonstrated through a second order correlation measurement. Using this capability, we study the heating from single photon scattering events and compare that to a model that simulates the effects of photon scattering events on a chain of ions.