Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics

The Coplanar Waveguide - Cavity Penning Trap

The main aim of our current research activities is the development and construction of a Coplanar Waveguide-cavity Penning trap: a new planar Penning trap technology based upon Coplanar Waveguide (CPW) transmission-lines. 

The CPW is a planar transmission line, consisting of a central conducting strip and two flanking ground-planes. Quasi-TEM microwaves can propagate along this transmission line, with frequencies 1 – 50 GHz. CPW cavities with very high quality factors Q = 105, or higher, can be fabricated with superconducting materials. Such cavities are able to store a single MW photon and are the basis of circuit-quantum electrodynamics (circuit-QED) experiments with superconducting artificial atoms.

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Genesis of the CPW-cavity Penning trap

The novel Coplanar Waveguide cavity Penning trap results from the projection of the well-known cylindrical Penning trap onto the surface of a chip. 

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The CPW-cavity trap can be directly integrated within circuit-QED quantum networks, providing those with a  very powerful experimental tool, namely a geonium atom.

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Motion of an electron in a CPW-cavity Penning trap

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