On-chip quantum interference of a superconducting microsphere

• Published in: Quantum science and technology Vol. 3; no. 2; pp. 25001 - 25025
• Main Authors: Pino, H, Prat-Camps, J, Sinha, K, Venkatesh, B Prasanna, Romero-Isart, O
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.04.2018
• Subjects: macroscopic quantum superpositions; magnetic levitation; quantum micromechanics
• ISSN: 2058-9565; 2058-9565
• DOI: 10.1088/2058-9565/aa9d15

We propose and analyze an all-magnetic scheme to perform a Young's double slit experiment with a micron-sized superconducting sphere of mass 10 13 amu. We show that its center of mass could be prepared in a spatial quantum superposition state with an extent of the order of half a micrometer. The scheme is based on magnetically levitating the sphere above a superconducting chip and letting it skate through a static magnetic potential landscape where it interacts for short intervals with quantum circuits. In this way, a protocol for fast quantum interferometry using quantum magnetomechanics is passively implemented. Such a table-top earth-based quantum experiment would operate in a parameter regime where gravitational energy scales become relevant. In particular, we show that the faint parameter-free gravitationally-induced decoherence collapse model, proposed by Diósi and Penrose, could be unambiguously falsified.