Trapped-ion quantum logic utilizing position-dependent ac Stark shifts

We present a scheme utilizing position-dependent ac Stark shifts for doing quantum logic with trapped ions. By a proper choice of direction, position, and size, as well as power and frequency of a far-off-resonant Gaussian laser beam, specific ac Stark shifts can be assigned to the individual ions, making them distinguishable in frequency space. In contrast to previous all-optical based quantum gates with trapped ions, the present scheme enables individual addressing of single ions and selective addressing of any pair of ions for two-ion quantum gates, without using tightly focused laser beams. Furthermore, the decoherence rate due to off-resonant excitations can be made negligible as compared with other sources of decoherence.