Out of equilibrium quasiparticles (QPs) are one of the main sources of decoherence in superconducting quantum circuits and one that is particularly detrimental in devices with high kinetic inductance, such as high impedance resonators, qubits, and detectors. Despite significant progress in the understanding of QP dynamics, pinpointing their origin and decreasing their density remain outstanding tasks. The cyclic process of recombination and generation of QPs implies the exchange of phonons between the superconducting thin film and the underlying substrate. Reducing the number of substrate phonons with frequencies exceeding the spectral gap of the superconductor should result in a reduction of QPs. Indeed, we demonstrate that surrounding high impedance resonators made of granular aluminum (grAl) with lower gapped thin film aluminum islands increases the internal quality factors of the resonators in the single photon regime, suppresses the noise, and reduces the rate of observed QP bursts. The aluminum islands are positioned far enough from the resonators to be electromagnetically decoupled, thus not changing the resonator frequency nor the loading. We therefore attribute the improvements observed in grAl resonators to phonon trapping at frequencies close to the spectral gap of aluminum, well below the grAl gap.

Phonon traps reduce the quasiparticle density in superconducting circuits / Henriques, F.; Valenti, F.; Charpentier, T.; Lagoin, M.; Gouriou, C.; Martinez, M.; Cardani, L.; Vignati, M.; Grunhaupt, L.; Gusenkova, D.; Ferrero, J.; Skacel, S. T.; Wernsdorfer, W.; Ustinov, A. V.; Catelani, G.; Sander, O.; Pop, I. M.. - In: APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS. - ISSN 0003-6951. - 115:21(2019), p. 212601. [10.1063/1.5124967]

Phonon traps reduce the quasiparticle density in superconducting circuits

Martinez M.;Cardani L.;Vignati M.;
2019

Abstract

Out of equilibrium quasiparticles (QPs) are one of the main sources of decoherence in superconducting quantum circuits and one that is particularly detrimental in devices with high kinetic inductance, such as high impedance resonators, qubits, and detectors. Despite significant progress in the understanding of QP dynamics, pinpointing their origin and decreasing their density remain outstanding tasks. The cyclic process of recombination and generation of QPs implies the exchange of phonons between the superconducting thin film and the underlying substrate. Reducing the number of substrate phonons with frequencies exceeding the spectral gap of the superconductor should result in a reduction of QPs. Indeed, we demonstrate that surrounding high impedance resonators made of granular aluminum (grAl) with lower gapped thin film aluminum islands increases the internal quality factors of the resonators in the single photon regime, suppresses the noise, and reduces the rate of observed QP bursts. The aluminum islands are positioned far enough from the resonators to be electromagnetically decoupled, thus not changing the resonator frequency nor the loading. We therefore attribute the improvements observed in grAl resonators to phonon trapping at frequencies close to the spectral gap of aluminum, well below the grAl gap.
2019
quasiparticles; phonons; qubit
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Phonon traps reduce the quasiparticle density in superconducting circuits / Henriques, F.; Valenti, F.; Charpentier, T.; Lagoin, M.; Gouriou, C.; Martinez, M.; Cardani, L.; Vignati, M.; Grunhaupt, L.; Gusenkova, D.; Ferrero, J.; Skacel, S. T.; Wernsdorfer, W.; Ustinov, A. V.; Catelani, G.; Sander, O.; Pop, I. M.. - In: APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS. - ISSN 0003-6951. - 115:21(2019), p. 212601. [10.1063/1.5124967]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1360115
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