Eur. Phys. J. D 63, 9-16 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2011-10517-6

Regular Article

Trapped electron coupled to superconducting devices

¹ Physikalisches Institut, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Wolfgang-Gaede-Str. 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
² Physikalisches Institut and Center for Collective Quantum Phenomena, Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 14, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
³ Institut für Mikro- und Nanoelektronische Systeme, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Hertzstrasse 16, 76187 Karlsruhe, Germany
⁴ Institut für Physik, QUANTUM, Universität Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz, Germany

^a e-mail: pavel.bushev@pi.uka.de

Received: 17 September 2010
Received in final form: 13 January 2011
Published online: 27 April 2011

Abstract

We propose to couple a trapped single electron to superconducting structures located at a variable distance from the electron. The electron is captured in a cryogenic Penning trap using electric fields and a static magnetic field in the tesla range. Measurements on the electron will allow investigating the properties of the superconductor such as vortex structure, damping and decoherence. We propose to couple a superconducting microwave resonator to the electron in order to realize a circuit QED-like experiment, as well as to couple superconducting Josephson junctions or superconducting quantum interferometers (SQUIDs) to the electron. The electron may also be coupled to a vortex which is situated in a double well potential, realized by nearby pinning centers in the superconductor, acting as a quantum mechanical two level system that can be controlled by a transport current tilting the double well potential. The electron may also be coupled to a single vortex, thus hybridizing an elementary excitation of a superconductor and an elementary particle.