A planar Penning trap
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Abstract
In this thesis I present theoretical and experimental results concern-
ing the operation and properties of a new kind of Penning trap, the
planar trap. It consists of circular electrodes printed on an isolating
surface, with
an homogeneous magnetic field pointing perpendicular
to that surface. The motivation of such geometry is to be found in
the construction of an array of planar traps for quantum informa-
tional purposes. The open access to radiation of this geometry, and
the long coherence times expected for Penning traps, make the planar
trap a good candidate for quantum computation. Several proposals
for quantum 2-qubit interactions are studied and estimates for their
rates are given.
An expression for the electrostatic potential is presented, and its fea-
tures exposed. A detailed study of the anharmonicity of the potential
is given theoretically and is later demonstrated by experiment and
numerical simulations, showing good agreement.
Size scalability of this trap has been studied by replacing the original
planar trap by a trap twice smaller in the experimental setup. This
substitution shows no scale effect apart from those expected for the
scaling of the parameters of the trap.
A smaller lifetime for trapped
electrons is seen for this smaller trap, but is clearly matched to a
bigger misalignment of the trap’s surface and the magnetic field, due
to its more difficult hand manipulation.
I also give a hint that this trap may be of help in studying non-linear
dynamics for a sextupolarly perturbed Penning trap.