We present a planar, scalable magnetic field source, originally conceived for a chip ion trap. It consists of two symmetric sections, each with several independent currents arranged in coplanar, concentric rectangular loops. The currents allow for tuning the strength of the field and its lowest-order derivatives at one discretional position along the source's vertical symmetry axis, a few mm above its surface. We describe the construction and calibration of the device and the cryogenic setup. The two most important current configurations for a Penning ion trap, the homogeneous field and the magnetic bottle, are investigated experimentally. Homogeneous fields around 0.5 T are routinely reached. We discuss the maximum attainable field, and we briefly describe ongoing further developments aiming at homogeneous fields well above 1 T.
We present a planar, scalable magnetic field source, originally conceived for a chip ion trap. It consists of two symmetric sections, each with several independent currents arranged in coplanar, concentric rectangular loops. The currents allow for tuning the strength of the field and its lowest-order derivatives at one discretional position along the source's vertical symmetry axis, a few mm above its surface. We describe the construction and calibration of the device and the cryogenic setup. The two most important current configurations for a Penning ion trap, the homogeneous field and the magnetic bottle, are investigated experimentally. Homogeneous fields around 0.5 T are routinely reached. We discuss the maximum attainable field, and we briefly describe ongoing further developments aiming at homogeneous fields well above 1 T.
This thesis presents the theoretical foundation and design of a planar magnetic field source for the Geonium Chip Penning trap. Conventional Penning traps are limited in their scalability by the size of their magnetic field sources, which often take the shape of large and expensive superconducting solenoids. For many practical applications, such as portable mass spectrometry and quantum radar, these conventional Penning trap systems would be unsuitable, due to their large size and need for very high currents (of the order of a few hundred amperes). The Geonium Chip Penning trap aims to overcome this problem by proposing a novel planar magnetic field source comprising several superconducting coils confined to a plane. The electrode surfaces of the trap sit less than a millimetre above the magnetic field source such that the trapping magnetic field is oriented parallel to the electrode surfaces. In this thesis, I explore many of the fundamental design issues concerned with developing such a planar magnetic field source. In particular, I devise an entirely new scheme of remotely magnetising a plurality of closed superconducting loops to carry currents in persistent mode, and show how persistent supercurrents of hundreds of amperes can be remotely induced with input currents of the order of a few (one to two) amperes. I introduce, and experimentally verify, a theoretical framework that allows for a high degree of control over the magnetic field distribution. From this framework, I present an optimised design of a planar persistent current-mode magnetic field source theoretically capable of achieving a 0.1 T field homogeneous up to fourth order in the Taylor expansion about the trapping position. This magnetic field source is due to be constructed and tested in the coming months.
In this thesis is presented the realisation of `The Geonium Chip', a novel planar Penning trap. The chip is designed with the goal of building a truly scalable planar Penning trap, while retaining the accuracy of 3D traps. Manufactured with conventional metalon- silicon microfabrication techniques, the chip takes the 5 electrodes of the compensated cylindrical trap and projects them onto a ground-plane surface, thus forming the basis for its layout by reducing the electrode shape to an array of at rectangular surfaces. In this thesis I describe the conception, design and construction of a full cryogenic set-up, including the magnetics, for trapping and observing a single electron in the Geonium Chip Penning trap. The cyclotron mode of the trapped electron lies in the microwave regime, and thus the Geonium Chip has the potential to become a powerful building block for quantum microwave circuits, with coherent coupling to the cyclotron degree of freedom. This will also allow non-destructive measurement and interaction with the spin state of the electron. The development of the experimental process is detailed from scratch including the design, fabrication, and testing of the Geonium Chip, as well as the design, fabrication and testing of the experimental apparatus. The original solutions and space saving designs developed as part of the construction process are detailed, such as the custom on-chip cryogenic vacuum chamber, planar magnetic field source, and the LED-based electron loading system. The vacuum chamber and control systems are also described, and the in-house manufacturing capabilities of the Geonium group are detailed at length, with an emphasis on rapid prototyping high-accuracy components suitable for experimental use. The apparatus built within this PhD is within a few weeks of performing the first loading of electrons into the chip trap.
This thesis presents the development of the Geonium Chip, a planar Penning trap. The Geonium Chip consists of the five electrodes of a cylindrical Penning trap projected onto the surface of a microfabricated chip. Beneath the chip is a planar magnetic field source currently made from coils of niobium titanium wire. Traditionally the magnetic field source is a large superconducting solenoid, replacing this with a planar source makes the setup scalable, portable and economical. The Geonium Chip, with its magnetic field source and detection electronics, need to be placed in a cryostat. In this thesis, I describe the development of the cryogenic setup with particular emphasis on the design and optimisation of the non-destructive detection system. I detail the cryogenic wiring of the cryostat including the thermalisation of high current wires and the noise reduction techniques employed on the detection signal. In addition, I explore the parasitic capacitances of the Geonium Chip using microwave network analysis and describe the testing of the magnetic field source at 4 K. Finally, I discuss the generation of electrons within the trap and the results of our first attempts at trapping a cloud of electrons. Together, the chip and the magnetic field source can be used to trap ions for ultraaccurate mass spectrometry or an electron for single microwave photon detection. A single microwave photon detector is a tool that is currently still missing in quantum technology and is needed for determining the quantum state of microwave radiation fields. This is vital for quantum communication and cryptography. Additionally, using the Geonium Chip as a mass spectrometer has the potential to lead to very accurate mass spectrums without the need for frequent calibration. Finally, eliminating the expensive superconducting solenoid will make accurate mass spectrometry available to a wider market.
We discuss the experimental feasibility of quantum simulation with trapped ion crystals, using magnetic field gradients. We describe a micro structured planar ion trap, which contains a central wire loop generating a strong magnetic gradient of about 20 T/m in an ion crystal held about 160 μm above the surface. On the theoretical side, we extend a proposal about spin-spin interactions via magnetic gradient induced coupling (MAGIC) [J. Phys. B At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 42, 154009 (2009)]. We describe aspects where planar ion traps promise novel physics: spin-spin coupling strengths of transversal eigenmodes exhibit significant advantages over the coupling schemes in longitudinal direction that have been previously investigated. With a chip device and a magnetic field coil with small inductance, a resonant enhancement of magnetic spin forces through the application of alternating magnetic field gradients is proposed. Such resonantly enhanced spin-spin coupling may be used, for instance, to create Schrödinger cat states. Finally we investigate magnetic gradient interactions in two-dimensional ion crystals, and discuss frustration effects in such two-dimensional arrangements.
Microwave-driven quantum logic gates in trapped-ion systems offer a scalable and laser-free alternative to optical control, with the potential for robust integration into surface-electrode trap architectures. In this work, we present a systematic design guideline for planar ion traps optimized for fast two-qubit microwave gates using chip-integrated conductors. We investigate two electrode configurations, one employing a single microwave line for driving σ transitions, and another with two symmetric lines for π transitions. Through finite-element simulations, we analyze ion height, magnetic field gradients, heating effects, and gate durations under realistic cryogenic conditions. Our results show that both configurations can achieve two-qubit gate times in the order of 10 μs for Be+9 and Ca+40 ions.
In modern ion quantum technology the fields of quantum information and microfabrication are being merged to build devices in which ions are confined near trap electrodes at the micrometer scale -with novel functionality where ion qubits enabling quantum devices. A long term goal in this field is to build a trapped-ion based quantum computer. Today’s quest, however, requires a progressive ion trap development in which materials selection, trap’s design and fabrication methods play a fundamental role. Here, we report on two fabrication methods for planar traps. We present the characterization of a planar trap with integrated electromagnets which is designed to coherently manipulate 40Ca+ ions’ internal states via magnetic field gradients and long-wavelength radiation. By implementing radiofrequency spectroscopy, in the presence of static magnetic fields, and by moving a single 40Ca+ ion about 600 µm along the trap axis we measured the total static magnetic field which yields a gradient of 1.11 +/- 0.18 T/m*A in this direction. We anticipate in this trap magnetic gradients of 10 T/m*A perpendicular to the trap axis. A second generation of this trap, a novel hybrid planar trap, is built by combining the capabilities of thick film technology and laser-induced glass micromachining to structure independent current-carrying wires beneath an ion trap. Into the vacuum chamber, we also incorporate surface cleaning tools such as ion-beam bombardment to diminish possible adsorbed contaminants which may reflect in excessive ion heating rates. Based on numerical simulations, we predict that the wires underneath the ion trap, although far from trap center, will be capable of producing high magnetic field gradients of about 3 T/m*A. Already such robust fields will allow to investigate strong v_ss=30 kHz spin-spin interactions in 40Ca+ ion crystals in planar traps.