Spectroscopy of Wigner molecules on superfluid helium using a superconducting resonator

G. Koolstra, Ge Yang, D. I. Schuster

Published 2019-02-12Version 1

Electrons on helium form a unique two-dimensional electron system on the interface of liquid helium and vacuum. On liquid helium, trapped electrons can arrange into strongly correlated states known as Wigner molecules, which can be used to study electron interactions in the absence of disorder, or as a highly promising resource for quantum computation. Wigner molecules have orbital frequencies in the microwave regime and can therefore be integrated with circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED), which studies light-matter interactions using microwave photons. Here, we experimentally realize a cQED platform with the orbital state of Wigner molecules on helium. We deterministically prepare one to four-electron Wigner molecules on top of a microwave resonator, which allows us to observe their unique spectra for the first time. Furthermore, we find a single-electron-photon coupling strength of g/2$\pi$ = 4.8$\pm$0.3 MHz, greatly exceeding the resonator linewidth $\kappa$/2$\pi$ = 0.5 MHz. These results pave the way towards microwave studies of strongly correlated electron states and coherent control of the orbital and spin state of Wigner molecules on helium.}