No Arabic abstract
High kinetic inductance materials constitute a valuable resource for superconducting quantum circuits and hybrid architectures. Superconducting granular aluminum (grAl) reaches kinetic sheet inductances in the nH/$square$ range, with proven applicability in superconducting quantum bits and microwave detectors. Here we show that the single photon internal quality factor $Q_{mathrm{i}}$ of grAl microwave resonators exceeds $10^5$ in magnetic fields up to 1T, aligned in-plane to the grAl films. Small perpendicular magnetic fields, in the range of 0.5mT, enhance $Q_{mathrm{i}}$ by approximately 15%, possibly due to the introduction of quasiparticle traps in the form of fluxons. Further increasing the perpendicular field deteriorates the resonators quality factor. These results open the door for the use of high kinetic inductance grAl structures in circuit quantum electrodynamics and hybrid architectures with magnetic field requirements.
The introduction of crystalline defects or dopants can give rise to so-called dirty superconductors, characterized by reduced coherence length and quasiparticle mean free path. In particular, granular superconductors such as Granular Aluminum (GrAl), consisting of remarkably uniform grains connected by Josephson contacts have attracted interest since the sixties thanks to their rich phase diagram and practical advantages, like increased critical temperature, critical field, and kinetic inductance. Here we report the measurement and modeling of circuit quantum electrodynamics properties of GrAl microwave resonators in a wide frequency range, up to the spectral superconducting gap. Interestingly, we observe self-Kerr coefficients ranging from $10^{-2}$ Hz to $10^5$ Hz, within an order of magnitude from analytic calculations based on GrAl microstructure. This amenable nonlinearity, combined with the relatively high quality factors in the $10^5$ range, open new avenues for applications in quantum information processing and kinetic inductance detectors.
In this work, we find that Al cladding on Nb microstrip resonators is an efficient way to suppress nonlinear responses induced by local Joule heating, resulting in improved microwave power handling capability. This improvement is likely due to the proximity effect between the Al and the Nb layers. The proximity effect is found to be controllable by tuning the thickness of the Al layer. We show that improving the film quality is also helpful as it enhances the microwave critical current density, but it cannot eliminate the local heating.
Nanoscale electromechanical coupling provides a unique route towards control of mechanical motions and microwave fields in superconducting cavity electromechanical devices. Though their successes in utilizing the optomechanical or electromechanical back-action effects for various purposes, aluminum imposes severe constraints on their operating conditions with its low superconducting critical temperature (1.2 K) and magnetic field (0.01 T). To extend the potential of the devices, here we fabricate a superconducting electromechanical device employing niobium and demonstrate a set of cavity electromechanical dynamics including back-action cooling and amplification, and electromechanically induced reflection at 4.2 K and in strong magnetic fields up to 0.8 T. This device could be used to realize electromechanical microwave components for quantum technologies by integrating amplifiers, converters, and circulators on a single chip that can be installed at the 4K stage of dilution refrigerators. Moreover, with its ability to control and readout nanomechanical motions simultaneously, this niobium electromechanical transducer could provide powerful nanomechanical sensing platforms.
We report on a detailed study of the optical response and $T_c-rho$ phase diagram ($T_c$ being the superconducting critical temperature and $rho$ the normal state resistivity of the film) of granular aluminum, combining transport measurements and a high resolution optical spectroscopy technique. The $T_c-rho$ phase diagram is discussed as resulting from an interplay between the phase stiffness, the Coulomb repulsion and the superconducting gap $Delta$. We provide a direct evidence for two different types of well resolved sub-gap absorptions, at $omega_1simeqDelta$ and at $Deltalesssimomega_2lesssim2Delta$ (decreasing with increasing resistivity).
Superconducting resonators interfaced with paramagnetic spin ensembles are used to increase the sensitivity of electron spin resonance experiments and are key elements of microwave quantum memories. Certain spin systems that are promising for such quantum memories possess sweet spots at particular combinations of magnetic fields and frequencies, where spin coherence times or linewidths become particularly favorable. In order to be able to couple high-Q superconducting resonators to such specific spin transitions, it is necessary to be able to tune the resonator frequency under a constant magnetic field amplitude. Here, we demonstrate a high quality, magnetic field resilient superconducting resonator, using a 3D vector magnet to continuously tune its resonance frequency by adjusting the orientation of the magnetic field. The resonator maintains a quality factor of $> 10^5$ up to magnetic fields of 2.6 T, applied predominantly in the plane of the superconductor. We achieve a continuous tuning of up to 30 MHz by rotating the magnetic field vector, introducing a component of 5 mT perpendicular to the superconductor.