Superconducting microfabricated ion traps

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the fabrication and characterization of superconducting ion traps using niobium materials, showing stable trapping of ions at cryogenic temperatures and minimal impact of superconductivity on ion heating rates.

Contribution

It introduces superconducting microfabricated ion traps with detailed characterization, enabling integration with superconducting quantum devices.

Findings

Superconducting transition verified via resistance and rf reflection measurements.

Ion heating rates show no significant change across the superconducting transition.

Stable trapping of single 88Sr ions at cryogenic temperatures achieved.

Abstract

We fabricate superconducting ion traps with niobium and niobium nitride and trap single 88Sr ions at cryogenic temperatures. The superconducting transition is verified and characterized by measuring the resistance and critical current using a 4-wire measurement on the trap structure, and observing change in the rf reflection. The lowest observed heating rate is 2.1(3) quanta/sec at 800 kHz at 6 K and shows no significant change across the superconducting transition, suggesting that anomalous heating is primarily caused by noise sources on the surface. This demonstration of superconducting ion traps opens up possibilities for integrating trapped ions and molecular ions with superconducting devices.