Sensitivity of ultracold atoms to quantized flux in a superconducting ring

Abstract

We report on the magnetic trapping of an ultracold ensemble of ${}^{87}$Rb atoms close to a superconducting ring prepared in different states of quantized magnetic flux. The niobium ring of 10 $\mu$m radius is prepared in a flux state $n{\Phi }_0$, with ${\Phi }_0=h/2e$ the flux quantum and $n$ varies between $\pm 5$. An atomic cloud of 250 nK temperature is positioned with a harmonic magnetic trapping potential at $\sim 18\mu$m distance below the ring. The inhomogeneous magnetic field of the supercurrent in the ring contributes to the magnetic trapping potential of the cloud. The induced deformation of the magnetic trap impacts the shape of the cloud, the number of trapped atoms as well as the center-of-mass oscillation frequency of Bose-Einstein condensates. When the field applied during cooldown of the chip is varied, the change of these properties shows discrete steps that quantitatively match flux quantization.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Strong magnetic coupling of an ultracold gas to a superconducting waveguide cavity
• Reversible state transfer between superconducting qubits and atomic ensembles
• Quantum information processing with single photons and atomic ensembles in microwave coplanar waveguide resonators
• Meissner effect in superconducting microtraps
• On the feasibility of studying vortex noise in 2D superconductors with cold atoms
• Impact of the Meissner effect on magnetic micro traps for neutral atoms near superconducting thin films
• Evaporative cooling of cold atoms at surfaces
• Macroscopic Entanglement of a Bose Einstein Condensate on a Superconducting Atom Chip
• Macroscopic entanglement between a Bose Einstein condensate and a superconducting loop
• Transfer and storage of qubits in the presence of decoherence
• Trapping neutral atoms in the field of a vortex pinned by a superconducting nano-disc

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Coherent dynamics in long fluxonium qubits
• Van der Waals interaction potential between Rydberg atoms near surfaces
• Optically Tailored Trapping Geometries for Ultracold Atoms on a Type-II Superconducting Chip
• Atom chips with free-standing two-dimensional electron gases: advantages and challenges
• Superfluid Oscillator Circuit with Quantum Current Regulator