Microparticle Levitation and Cooling in an Axial Magnetic Trap

Quantum research has been at the forefront of physical research for the last century, with many theories involving quantum gravity not being provable experimentally. The development of particle levitation methods proves to be a possible case to produce large quantum objects by reducing the energy of the particle to the motional ground state(MGS). This thesis provides an alternative option to the conventional optical trap methods to approach the MGS. A robust axial magnetic trap is constructed and demonstrated to have the highest trap frequency found in a magnetic trap to date at 𝑓𝑧 = 1590 Hz. Anovel magnetic feedback system is presented with broadband cooling effects and a reduction of 75× at the z axis motional peak. A simulation has been produced alongside that allows for any magnetic trap configurations to be modelled. The simulation is verified against preexisting models and shows consistency with both the axial magnetic trap and checker board trap. By combining the experimental and simulation work in this project, a promising proposal for an alternative ground state system is presented.