Optimized planar Penning traps for quantum information studies

Single electron qubits are attractive for quantum information processing because they offer, for example, the possibility of extremely long coherence times. For scaling up to a large number of coupled qubits, an array of planar Penning traps is a much more promising option than the cylindrical Penning traps within which one-quantum transitions have been observed. This report summarizes optimized trap configurations, discussed at length in Goldman and Gabrielse (Phys Rev A 81:052335, 2010), which promise to make it possible to realize one-electron qubits in a scalable configuration for the first time.