We present a scheme to couple trapped 87Rb atoms to a superconducting flux qubit through a magnetic dipole transition. We plan to trap atoms on the evanescent wave outside an ultrathin fiber to bring the atoms to less than 10 μm above the surface of the superconductor. This hybrid setup lends itself to probing sources of decoherence in superconducting qubits. Our current plan has the intermediate goal of coupling the atoms to a superconducting LC resonator.
@article{arxiv.1108.4153,
title = {Atoms Talking to SQUIDs},
author = {J. E. Hoffman and J. A. Grover and Z. Kim and A. K. Wood and J. R. Anderson and A. J. Dragt and M. Hafezi and C. J. Lobb and L. A. Orozco and S. L. Rolston and J. M. Taylor and C. P. Vlahacos and F. C. Wellstood},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1108.4153},
year = {2011}
}