No Arabic abstract
Surface distributions of two level system (TLS) defects and magnetic vortices are limiting dissipation sources in superconducting quantum circuits. Arrays of flux-trapping holes are commonly used to eliminate loss due to magnetic vortices, but may increase dielectric TLS loss. We find that dielectric TLS loss increases by approximately 25% for resonators with a hole array beginning 2 $mu text{m}$ from the resonator edge, while the dielectric loss added by holes further away was below measurement sensitivity. Other forms of loss were not affected by the holes. Additionally, we estimate the loss due to residual magnetic effects to be $9times 10^{-10} /mutext{T} $ for resonators patterned with flux-traps and operated in magnetic fields up to $5$ $mutext{T}$. This is orders of magnitude below the total loss of the best superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators.
The investigation of two-level-state (TLS) loss in dielectric materials and interfaces remains at the forefront of materials research in superconducting quantum circuits. We demonstrate a method of TLS loss extraction of a thin film dielectric by measuring a lumped element resonator fabricated from a superconductor-dielectric-superconductor trilayer. We extract the dielectric loss by formulating a circuit model for a lumped element resonator with TLS loss and then fitting to this model using measurements from a set of three resonator designs: a coplanar waveguide resonator, a lumped element resonator with an interdigitated capacitor, and a lumped element resonator with a parallel plate capacitor that includes the dielectric thin film of interest. Unlike other methods, this allows accurate measurement of materials with TLS loss lower than $10^{-6}$. We demonstrate this method by extracting a TLS loss of $1.02 times 10^{-3}$ for sputtered $mathrm{Al_2O_3}$ using a set of samples fabricated from an $mathrm{Al/Al_2O_3/Al}$ trilayer. We observe a difference of 11$%$ between extracted loss of the trilayer with and without the implementation of this method.
We present microwave-frequency NbTiN resonators on silicon, systematically achieving internal quality factors above 1 M in the quantum regime. We use two techniques to reduce losses associated with two-level systems: an additional substrate surface treatment prior to NbTiN deposition to optimize the metal-substrate interface, and deep reactive-ion etching of the substrate to displace the substrate-vacuum interfaces away from high electric fields. The temperature and power dependence of resonator behavior indicate that two-level systems still contribute significantly to energy dissipation, suggesting that more interface optimization could further improve performance.
The temperature and field dependences of the trapped magnetic fields and of the frozen magnetoresistance of (Pb)Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O ceramics and Bi-based magnetron films are investigated. It is found that in the resistive transition region of granular Bi-HTSC the trapped magnetic fields become highly inhomogeneous and alternating in sign at scale of less than 50 microns. Unlike ceramic the films have critical temperature of trapping lower than the upper temperature of magnetoresistance disappearance. The experimental results are explained by a model in which the magnetic fields are trapped in superconducting loops embedded in Josephson weak links medium. The loops nature which is essentially different for films and ceramics is discussed. Observed temperature and field dependences of trapped field are in good agreement with those calculated for normal law of the loops distribution on critical fields.
Thin films of TiN were sputter-deposited onto Si and sapphire wafers with and without SiN buffer layers. The films were fabricated into RF coplanar waveguide resonators, and internal quality factor measurements were taken at millikelvin temperatures in both the many photon and single photon limits, i.e. high and low power regimes, respectively. At high power, internal quality factors ($Q_i$s) higher than $10^7$ were measured for TiN with predominantly a (200)-TiN orientation. Films that showed significant (111)-TiN texture invariably had much lower $Q_i$s, on the order of $10^5$. Our studies show that the (200)-TiN is favored for growth at high temperature on either bare Si or SiN buffer layers. However, growth on bare sapphire or Si(100) at low temperature resulted in primarily a (111)-TiN orientation. Ellipsometry and Auger measurements indicate that the (200)-TiN growth on the bare Si substrates is correlated with the formation of a thin, $approx 2$ nm, layer of SiN during the pre-deposition procedure. In the single photon regime, $Q_i$ of these films exceeded $8times10^5$, while thicker SiN buffer layers led to reduced $Q_i$s at low power.
Losses in superconducting planar resonators are presently assumed to predominantly arise from surface-oxide dissipation, due to experimental losses varying with choice of materials. We model and simulate the magnitude of the loss from interface surfaces in the resonator, and investigate the dependence on power, resonator geometry, and dimensions. Surprisingly, the dominant surface loss is found to arise from the metal-substrate and substrate-air interfaces. This result will be useful in guiding device optimization, even with conventional materials.