Qutrit quantum computer with trapped ions

We study the physical implementation of a qutrit quantum computer in the context of trapped ions. Qutrits are defined in terms of electronic levels of trapped ions. We concentrate our attention on a universal two-qutrit gate, which corresponds to a controlled-NOT gate between qutrits. Using this gate and a general gate of an individual qutrit, any gate can be decomposed into a sequence of these gates. In particular, we show how this works for performing the quantum Fourier transform for n qutrits.