



01337nas a2200157   4500008004100000245005300041210005300094260001300147490000800160520089300168100001901061700002201080700002101102700001901123856003701142       2021                        eng d00aTrapped electrons and ions as particle detectors0 aTrapped electrons and ions as particle detectors  c8/5/20210 v1273 a<p>Electrons and ions trapped with electromagnetic fields have long served as important high-precision metrological instruments, and more recently have also been proposed as a platform for quantum information processing. Here we point out that these systems can also be used as highly sensitive detectors of passing charged particles, due to the combination of their extreme charge-to-mass ratio and low-noise quantum readout and control. In particular, these systems can be used to detect energy depositions many orders of magnitude below typical ionization scales. As an illustration, we show that current devices can be used to provide competitive sensitivity to models where ambient dark matter particles carry small electric millicharges ≪e. Our calculations may also be useful in the characterization of noise in quantum computers coming from backgrounds of charged particles.</p>1 aCarney, Daniel1 aHäffner, Hartmut1 aMoore, David, C.1 aTaylor, J., M.  uhttps://arxiv.org/abs/2104.05737