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arXiv:2405.17192 · APS Open Science

Quantum parity detectors: A qubit-based particle-detection scheme with meV thresholds for rare-event searches

Karthik Ramanathan, Brandon J. Sandoval, J. E. Parker, L. M. Joshi, Andrew D. Beyer, P. M. Echternach, Serge Rosenblum, S. R. Golwala

Published Apr 30, 2026• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The next generation of rare-event searches, such as those aimed at determining the nature of particle dark matter or measuring fundamental neutrino properties, will benefit from particle detectors with thresholds at the meV scale, 100 – 1000 × lower than currently available. Quantum parity detectors (QPDs) are a class of proposed quantum devices, extending recent work on superconducting qubit sensors, that exploit the fingerprints of single quasiparticle tunneling across a coherent weak link as their detection concept. As envisioned, phonons generated by particle interactions within a crystalline substrate cause an eventual quasiparticle cascade within a surface-patterned superconducting qubit element. This process alters the fundamental charge parity of the device in a binary manner, which can be used to deduce the initial properties of the energy deposition. This work lays out multiple resonator-coupled readout schemes depending on qubit architecture, provides an analytic formulation for reconstructing sensor energies, and details strategies for multiplexing large arrays of sensors. We further compute the sensitivity of QPDs and detail an R&D pathway to demonstrating sub-eV energy deposit thresholds.

DOI
10.1103/kqd2-spb1

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The next generation of rare-event searches, such as those aimed at determining the nature of particle dark matter or measuring fundamental neutrino properties, will benefit from particle detectors with thresholds at the meV scale, 100 – 1000 × lower than currently available. Quantum parity detectors (QPDs) are a class of proposed quantum devices, extending recent work on superconducting qubit sensors, that exploit the fingerprints of single quasiparticle tunneling across a coherent weak link as their detection concept. As envisioned, phonons generated by particle interactions within a crystalline substrate cause an eventual quasiparticle cascade within a surface-patterned superconducting qubit element. This process alters the fundamental charge parity of the device in a binary manner, which can be used to deduce the initial properties of the energy deposition. This work lays out multiple resonator-coupled readout schemes depending on qubit architecture, provides an analytic formulation for reconstructing sensor energies, and details strategies for multiplexing large arrays of sensors. We further compute the sensitivity of QPDs and detail an R&D pathway to demonstrating sub-eV energy deposit thresholds.
Phonon sensitive superconducting qubits promise to provide sub-eV energy deposit thresholds, useful for future rare-event experiments looking for interactions from dark matter and neutrinos. We detail here engineering results from a Quantum Parity Detector (QPDs), one of a class of phonon sensitive qubits, and, as a first measurement, show that this device has a quiescent quasiparticle density of 1.8±0.8μm−31.8 \pm 0.8 μ\mathrm{m}^{-3}1.8±0.8μm−3, in line with expectation. We also outline an argon ion-mill process for multi-step Josephson Junction fabrication, expanding the sparse literature on this topic, which proves useful in avoiding secondary parasitic junctions.
With great interest from the quantum computing community, an immense amount of R&D effort has been invested into improving superconducting qubits. The technologies developed for the design and fabrication of these qubits can be directly applied to applications for ultralow-threshold particle detectors, e.g., low-mass dark matter and far-infrared photon sensing. We propose a novel energy-resolving sensor based on the transmon qubit architecture combined with a signal-enhancing superconducting quasiparticle amplification stage. We refer to these sensors as SQUATs: superconducting quasiparticle-amplifying transmons. We detail the operating principle and design of this new sensor and predict that, with minimal R&D effort, solid-state-based detectors patterned with these sensors can achieve sensitivity to single terahertz photons, and sensitivity to 1 meV phonons in the detector absorber substrate on the microsecond timescale. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Detecting quasiparticle tunneling events in superconducting circuits provides information about the population and dynamics of non-equilibrium quasiparticles. Such events can be detected by monitoring changes in the frequency of an offset-charge-sensitive superconducting qubit. This monitoring has so far been performed by Ramsey interferometry assisted by a readout resonator. Here, we demonstrate a quasiparticle detector based on a superconducting qubit directly coupled to a waveguide. We directly measure quasiparticle number parity on the qubit island by probing the coherent scattering of a microwave tone, offering simplicity of operation, fast detection speed, and a large signal-to-noise ratio. We observe tunneling rates between 0.8 and 7 s−17~\rm{s}^{-1}7 s−1, depending on the average occupation of the detector qubit, and achieve a temporal resolution below 10 μs10~μ\rm{s}10 μs without a quantum-limited amplifier. Our simple and efficient detector lowers the barrier to perform studies of quasiparticle population and dynamics, facilitating progress in fundamental science, quantum information processing, and sensing.
Superconducting qubits are compelling platforms for charge-parity detection and, due to their theoretical sensitivity on the meV energy scale, hold promise for rare event searches. In this work, we realize high-fidelity mapping of charge-parity states onto qubit states using an offset-charge-tunable transmon qubit and efficiently characterize the fidelity of the charge-parity detection via randomized benchmarking. Specifically, a gate control line is applied to control offset charge, allowing us to achieve the single-qubit gate fidelity up to 99.96%. We combine a net-zero-based pulse on the gate line with a spin-echo-based sequence to realize charge-parity mapping, achieving a fidelity of 99.37%. Then, we demonstrate continuous monitoring of the charge-parity state with over 93.4% fidelity at a 4-μs sampling interval. Finally, an error analysis of charge-parity detection is performed, and it is found that qubit readout is currently the largest source of error. We believe this work lays the foundation for future exploration of ultra-low energy particles.
We propose a sensitive new detector based on Cooper pair breaking in a superconductor. The quantum capacitor detector (QCD) exploits the extraordinary sensitivity of superconducting single-electron devices to the presence of quasiparticles generated by pair-breaking photons. This concept would enable single-photon detection at far-IR and sub-millimeter frequencies with detector sensitivities that exceed that of transition-edge-sensor bolometers (TES), kinetic inductance detectors (KID), and superconducting tunnel junction detectors (STJ). The detectors we propose are based on the single Cooper pair box (SCB), a mesoscopic superconducting device that has been successfully developed at JPL for applications in quantum computing. This concept allows for frequency multiplexing of a large number of pixels using a single RF line, and does not require individual bias of each pixel. The QCD is ideal for the sensitive spectrographs considered for upcoming cold space telescopes, such as BLISS for SPICA in the coming decade, and for the more ambitious instruments for the SAFIR / CALISTO and SPIRIT / SPECS missions envisioned for the 2020 decade. These missions require large detector arrays (> 10,000 elements) which are limited by astrophysical background noise, corresponding to a noise-equivalent power (NEP) as low as 2x10-20 W / Hz1/2. Given its intrinsic response time, the QCD could also be used for energy-resolved visible photon detection, with estimated energy resolution > 100, enabling imaging low-resolution spectroscopy with an array of detectors.
In recent years, the lack of a conclusive detection of weakly interacting massive particle dark matter at the 10  GeV/c210\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/{\mathrm{c}}^{2}10  GeV/c2 mass scale and above has encouraged development of low-threshold detector technology aimed at probing lighter dark matter candidates. Detectors based on Cooper-pair-breaking sensors have emerged as a promising avenue for this detection due to the low (meV-scale) energy required for breaking a Cooper pair in most superconductors. Among them, devices based on superconducting qubits are interesting candidates for sensing due to their observed sensitivity to broken Cooper pairs. We have developed an end-to-end g4cmp-based simulation framework and have used it to evaluate performance metrics of qubit-based devices operating in a gate-based ``energy relaxation'' readout scheme, akin to those used in recent studies of qubit sensitivity to ionizing radiation. We find that for this readout scheme, the qubit acts as a phonon sensor with an energy threshold ranging down to $\ensuremath{\simeq}0.4\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$ for near-term performance parameters.