A Chip-Based Superconducting Magnetic Trap for Levitating Superconducting Microparticles

Abstract

Magnetically-levitated superconducting microparticles have been recently proposed as a promising platform for performing quantum experiments with particles in the picogram regime. Here, we demonstrate the superconducting technology to achieve chip-based magnetic levitation of superconducting microparticles. We simulate and fabricate a chip-based magnetic trap capable of levitating superconducting particles with diameters from 0.5 µm to 200 µm. The trap consists of two stacked silicon chips, each patterned with a planar multiwinding superconducting coil made of niobium. The two coils generate a magnetic field resembling a quadrupole near the trap center, in which we demonstrate trapping of a spherical 50 µm diameter SnPb microparticle at temperatures of 4 K and 40 mK.