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Journal of Applied Physics

Effect of metal/substrate interfaces on radio-frequency loss in superconducting coplanar waveguides

David Wisbey, Jiansong Gao, Michael R. Vissers, Fabio C. S. da Silva, Jeffrey S. Kline, Leila R. Vale, David P. Pappas

Published Nov 1, 2010• 80 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Microscopic two-level systems (TLSs) are known to contribute to loss in resonant superconducting microwave circuits. This loss increases at low power and temperatures as the TLSs become unsaturated. We find that the loss is dependent on both the substrate-superconductor interface and the roughness of the surfaces. A native, oxide-free interface reduced the loss due to TLSs. However, a rough surface in the CPW gap did not cause more TLS loss, but the overall loss was significantly increased for the roughest surfaces.

DOI
10.1063/1.3499608

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Microscopic two-level systems (TLSs) are known to contribute to loss in resonant superconducting microwave circuits. This loss increases at low power and temperatures as the TLSs become unsaturated. We find that the loss is dependent on both the substrate-superconductor interface and the roughness of the surfaces. A native, oxide-free interface reduced the loss due to TLSs. However, a rough surface in the CPW gap did not cause more TLS loss, but the overall loss was significantly increased for the roughest surfaces.
High quality factor, i.e. low loss, microwave resonators are important for quantum information storage and addressing. In this work we study the resonance frequency and loss in superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators as a function of power and temperature. We find that there is increased loss at low power and low temperature. The increased loss is attributed to the existence of two-level systems (TLS) at the surfaces, interfaces, and in the bulk of insulators deposited on the structures. We show that both the temperature dependence of the resonant frequency and the power dependence of the loss can be used to find the TLS contribution to the loss. The TLS intrinsic loss tangent derived from the frequency shift data at high power is shown to agree well with the direct loss measurement at low power. The former allows for a relatively fast measurement of the TLS loss. As an example, we measure the properties of amorphous AlOXdeposited on the resonators and find a TLS loss tangent of 1 × 10-3.
© 2019 American Physical Society. Superconducting quantum-computing architectures comprise resonators and qubits that experience energy loss due to two-level systems (TLSs) in bulk and interfacial dielectrics. An understanding of these losses is critical to improving performance in superconducting circuits. In this work, we present a method for quantifying the TLS losses of different bulk and interfacial dielectrics present in superconducting coplanar-waveguide (CPW) resonators. By combining statistical characterization of sets of specifically designed CPW resonators on isotropically etched silicon substrates with detailed electromagnetic modeling, we determine the separate loss contributions from individual material interfaces and bulk dielectrics. This technique for analyzing interfacial TLS losses can be used to guide targeted improvements to qubits, resonators, and their superconducting fabrication processes.
In current superconducting qubit circuit development, coherence time is limited by low-frequency flux noise introduced from localized two-level systems (TLSs) in the fabricated superconducting circuit, including superconducting materials, the interface between thin films, and the substrate. As a part of the effect to tackle this issue from a substrate standpoint, we succeed in fabricating NbN (200) oriented coplanar waveguide resonator (CPWR) on a thin titanium nitride (TiN) (200) buffered Si (100) substrate. The internal loss is close to 3 × 10-5nearphoton> ~1, improved from ~2 × 10-4in NbN (200) CPWR fabricated on MgO (100). For NbN (200) resonators grown on Si (100), the internal loss shows microwave energy independent. To further clarity if this energy independence is due to the change of substrate material, we also fabricated TiN (200) CPWR on Si (100). In contrast to NbN (200) CPWR, the loss of TiN (200) resonator shows a strong microwave dependent, an indication of TLSs originated from the interface and the surface. We suggest TLSs in NbN (200) CPWR are dominated from different mechanism other than arising from the interface and surface.
We present measurements of the temperature-dependent frequency shift of five niobium superconducting coplanar waveguide microresonators with center strip widths ranging from 3to50μm, taken at temperatures in the range of 100–800mK, far below the 9.2K transition temperature of niobium. These data agree well with the two-level system (TLS) theory. Fits to this theory provide information on the number of TLSs that interact with each resonator geometry. The geometrical scaling indicates a surface distribution of TLSs and the data are consistent with a TLS surface layer thickness of the order of a few nanometers, as might be expected for a native oxide layer.
In planar superconducting quantum circuits, two-level system (TLS) defects within amorphous dielectrics at various circuit interfaces, including substrate–metal (SM) and air-interfaces, are a critical source of decoherence. We employed molecular self-assembled monolayer (SAM) at different interfaces to mitigate TLS losses in superconducting coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonators. Previous work has reported an increase in the resonator quality factor when a SAM is applied to air-interfaces, but a contrasting decrease is observed when the SAM is applied to the metal–substrate interfaces. To investigate the reason behind this decrease, we fabricated and characterized niobium (Nb)-based CPW resonator chips on silicon substrates, both with and without a SAM at the SM interface. Quality factor measurements performed at 100 mK across a wide range of driving powers confirmed that the presence of the SAM at the SM interface led to a reduction in the quality factor. This observed decrease is attributed to an increased TLS defect density, as suggested by the topography of niobium deposited on the SAM. Our findings demonstrate that the roughness of the deposited Nb at the SM interface, which is influenced by the SAM, significantly impacts the density of TLS defects at this interface. Furthermore, simulations of TLS losses in CPW resonators supported our experimental observations by evaluating resonator quality factors under various interface modifications, particularly showing a decrease in the quality factor when the SM interface exhibited high loss.
We present a systematic analysis of the internal losses of superconducting coplanar waveguide microwave resonators based on niobium thin films on silicon substrates. In particular, we investigate losses introduced by Nb/Al interfaces in the center conductor, which is important for experiments where Al based Josephson junctions are integrated into Nb based circuits. We find that these interfaces can be a strong source for two-level state (TLS) losses, when the interfaces are not positioned at current nodes of the resonator. In addition to TLS losses, for resonators including Al, quasiparticle losses become relevant above 200 mK. Finally, we investigate how losses generated by eddy currents in conductive material on the backside of the substrate can be minimized by using thick enough substrates or metals with high conductivity on the substrate backside.