  Recent studies indicated that contamination by adatoms on the surface ion
trap can generate contact potential, leading to fluctuations in patch
potential. By investigating contamination induced by surface adatoms during a
loading process, a direct physical image of the contamination process and the
relationship between the capacitance change and the contamination from surface
adatoms is examined theoretically and experimentally. From the relationship,
the contamination by surface adatoms and the effect of in situ treatment
process can be monitored by the capacitance between electrodes in real time.
This study is foundational to further research on anomalous heating with
practical applications in quantum information processing from surface ion
traps.
