We demonstrate the coupling of rare-earth ions locally implanted in a substrate (Gd3+ in Al2O3) to a superconducting NbN lumped-element micro-resonator. The hybrid device is fabricated by a controlled ion implantation of rare-earth ions in well-defined micron-sized areas, aligned to lithographically defined micro-resonators. The technique does not degrade the internal quality factor of the resonators which remain above 105. Using microwave absorption spectroscopy, we observe electron-spin resonances in good agreement with numerical modelling and extract corresponding coupling rates of the order of 1 MHz and spin linewidths of 50–65 MHz.
Superconducting circuits are promising components for future quantum information technologies such as quantum computing, quantum simulation, and quantum sensing. Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) and superconducting flux qubits can be used as a sensitive magnetic field sensor to detect local electron spin resonance (ESR). These types of sensor are characterized by good sensitivity and high spatial resolution for electron spins. In fact, we have achieved a sensitivity of 20 spins/Hz with a sensing volume of 6 fl combining a flux qubit and qubit readout using a Josephson bifurcation amplifier. As a demonstration, we measured the ESR spectrum of erbium electron spins in a Y2SiO5 crystal and nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond. In both cases, we obtained reasonable electron spin parameters by fitting a simulation to the spectrum. In this way, we proved superconducting circuits to be promising magnetic field sensors for evaluating the properties of solid materials.
Engineering and understanding microwave resonators is essential for the efficient electron-spin control and readout in electron-spin-resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. This work, focused on superconducting planar microresonators, presents finite-element simulations modeling the spin-photon coupling rate, in quantitative agreement with experimental data. Three resonator designs are optimized to address spectroscopy applications in $\ensuremath{\mu}$m-thick samples, with one exhibiting notably good magnetic field homogeneity at microwave frequencies.