Vanadium superconducting microwave resonators on silicon wafers

Abstract

Understanding the correlation between material properties and microwave losses in superconducting films is a crucial subject for developing low-loss materials for quantum circuits. We focus on vanadium (V) as a novel material for superconducting quantum devices and discuss loss in V films in relation to their structural properties. Using a sputtering method, we grow four V-film structures on (001)-oriented Si wafers, employing Nb and Ta as the buffer and capping layer materials, respectively: Nb/V/Ta, Nb/V, V/Ta, and V. X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy reveal that the V films grown on the Nb buffer layers have higher uniformity of lattice orientation and smaller grain size than that directly grown on the Si wafer. Coplanar waveguide resonators are fabricated from the four V-film structures, and averaged photon number ($\langle n_{\rm ph} \rangle$) dependences of internal quality factor ($Q_{\rm int}$) are obtained by performing microwave measurements. By analyzing the obtained $Q_{\rm int}$ vs $\langle n_{\rm ph} \rangle$, it is found that loss at the V surface is dominated by $\langle n_{\rm ph} \rangle$-independent non-two-level-system (non-TLS) losses, which can be mitigated by introducing the Ta capping layer. Furthermore, the V films on the Nb buffer layers exhibit lower $Q_{\rm int}$ in the $\langle n_{\rm ph} \rangle$ range from 10$^{0}$ to 10$^{6}$ and higher non-TLS loss than that directly grown on Si wafers, even though the former has higher lattice-orientation uniformity than the latter. Origins of these trends might be relevant to V oxides, of which presence at surfaces and grain boundaries in bulk regions in the V resonators is suggested by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and/or V hydrides.