Chip-based superconducting levitation of micrometer-sized particles for macroscopic quantum experiments

Abstract:

Levitation is a physical phenomenon that suspends an object without any rigid connection to a fixed body. It, thus, gives the best possible isolation of an object from its surrounding environment. Optical and magnetic levitation have been proposed as promising experimental platforms to bring massive objects weighing up to picograms into the quantum regime. Levitating these objects in high vacuum and at low temperatures minimizes known sources of decoherence, such as gas particle damping or the interaction with black-body radiation. In principle, the observation of spatial superposition states of (sub-)micrometer-sized objects could be possible. Furthermore, such levitated particles could access new regimes in sensing of minute forces or accelerations. Our research focuses on superconducting levitation of micrometer-sized superconducting particles. In this talk, I present our current efforts in this exciting direction and discuss the technology behind it: chip-based superconducting traps and particles.