IEEE International Superconductive Electronics Conference (ISEC)
PC2: Identifying noise processes in superconducting resonators
Jonathan Burnett, T. Lindström, Ilana Wisby, Sebastian E. de Graaf, A. A. Adamyan, Andrey V. Danilov, Sergey Kubatkin, P. J. Meeson, Alexander Ya. Tzalenchuk
Extensive studies of dielectric loss due to two level fluctuators (TLFs) in superconducting resonators have provided routes for low loss resonators. The research is motivated not only by the use of resonators as detectors and in quantum information processing, but more generally due to TLFs being a source of noise and decoherence in all quantum devices. In this work a frequency locked loop was used to measure frequency fluctuations at timescales in excess of 104 seconds, thereby accurately probing the TLF induced low- frequency noise of the resonator. Our measurement method lead to very high statistical confidence even for very long timescales, and here we can therefore present results explicitly identifying power dependent flicker frequency noise (S = 1/fawhere a=1) persisting down to the mHz level.
Extensive studies of dielectric loss due to two level fluctuators (TLFs) in superconducting resonators have provided routes for low loss resonators. The research is motivated not only by the use of resonators as detectors and in quantum information processing, but more generally due to TLFs being a source of noise and decoherence in all quantum devices. In this work a frequency locked loop was used to measure frequency fluctuations at timescales in excess of 104 seconds, thereby accurately probing the TLF induced low- frequency noise of the resonator. Our measurement method lead to very high statistical confidence even for very long timescales, and here we can therefore present results explicitly identifying power dependent flicker frequency noise (S = 1/fawhere a=1) persisting down to the mHz level.
Superconducting quantum computing is experiencing a tremendous growth. Although major milestones have already been achieved, useful quantum-computing applications are hindered by a variety of decoherence phenomena. Decoherence due to two-level systems (TLSs) hosted by amorphous dielectric materials is ubiquitous in planar superconducting devices. We use high-quality quasilumped-element resonators as quantum sensors to investigate TLS-induced loss and noise. We perform two-tone experiments with a probe and pump electric fields; the pump is applied at different power levels and detunings. We measure and analyze time series of the quality factor and resonance frequency for very long time periods, up to 1000 h. We additionally carry out simulations based on the TLS interacting model in the presence of a pump field. We find that loss and noise are reduced at medium and high power, matching the simulations, but not at low power.
Slow noise processes, with characteristic timescales $\ensuremath{\sim}$1 s, have been studied in planar superconducting resonators. A frequency-locked loop is employed to track deviations of the resonator center frequency with high precision and bandwidth. Comparative measurements are made in varying microwave drive and temperature, and between bare resonators and those with an additional dielectric layer. All resonators are found to exhibit flicker frequency noise which increases with decreasing microwave drive. We also show that an increase in temperature results in a saturation of flicker noise in resonators with an additional dielectric layer, while bare resonators stop exhibiting flicker noise, instead showing a random frequency walk process.
Frequency instability of superconducting resonators and qubits leads to dephasing and time-varying energy loss and hinders quantum processor tune-up. Its main source is dielectric noise originating in surface oxides. Thorough noise studies are needed to develop a comprehensive understanding and mitigation strategy of these fluctuations. We use a frequency-locked loop to track the resonant frequency jitter of three different resonator types—one niobium nitride superinductor, one aluminum coplanar waveguide, and one aluminum cavity—and we observe notably similar random telegraph signal fluctuations. At low microwave drive power, the resonators exhibit multiple, unstable frequency positions, which, for increasing power, coalesce into one frequency due to motional narrowing caused by sympathetic driving of two-level system defects by the resonator. In all three devices, we identify a dominant fluctuator whose switching amplitude (separation between states) saturates with increasing drive power, but whose characteristic switching rate follows the power law dependence of quasi-classical Landau-Zener transitions.
Noise and decoherence due to spurious two-level systems located at material interfaces are long-standing issues for solid-state quantum devices. Efforts to mitigate the effects of two-level systems have been hampered by a lack of knowledge about their chemical and physical nature. Here, by combining dielectric loss, frequency noise and on-chip electron spin resonance measurements in superconducting resonators, we demonstrate that desorption of surface spins is accompanied by an almost tenfold reduction in the charge-induced frequency noise in the resonators. These measurements provide experimental evidence that simultaneously reveals the chemical signatures of adsorbed magnetic moments and highlights their role in generating charge noise in solid-state quantum devices.
The authors have measured noise in thin-film superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators. This noise appears entirely as phase noise, equivalent to a jitter of the resonance frequency. In contrast, amplitude fluctuations are not observed at the sensitivity of their measurement. The ratio between the noise power in the phase and amplitude directions is large, in excess of 30dB. These results have important implications for resonant readouts of various devices such as detectors, amplifiers, and qubits. They suggest that the phase noise is due to two-level systems in dielectric materials.
In this thesis, we first demonstrate that a disordered superconductor with high kinetic inductance can realise a microwave low-loss, non-dissipative circuit element with impedance greater than the quantum resistance. This element, known as a superinductor, can suppress the fluctuations of charge in a quantum circuit.For this purpose, we fabricated and characterised 20 nm thick, 40 nm wide niobium-nitride nanowires and determined the impedance to 6.795 kΩ. We demonstrate internal quality factors Qi = 2.5e4 in nanowire resonators at single photon excitation, which is significantly higher than values reported in devices with similar materials and geometries. Moreover, we show that the dominant dissipation in our nanowires is not an intrinsic property of the disordered films, but can instead be fully understood within the framework of two-level systems.To further characterise these losses, we then explore the geometrical scaling, toward nanowire dimensions, of dielectric losses in superconducting microwave resonators fabricated with the same techniques and from the same NbN thin-film as the nanowire superinductors. For this purpose, we perform an experimental and numerical study of dielectric loss at low temperatures. Using 3D finite-element simulation of the Maxwell--London equations, we compute the geometric filling factors of the lossy regions in our resonator structures and fit the experimental data to determine the intrinsic loss tangents of its interfaces and dielectrics. Finally, we study the effect of two-level systems on the performance of various superconducting quantum circuits. For this purpose, we measure coherence-time fluctuations in qubits and frequency fluctuations in resonators. In all devices, through statistical analysis, we identify the signature of individual Lorentzian fluctuators in the noise. We find that fluctuations in qubit relaxation are local to the qubit and are caused by instabilities of near-resonant two-level-systems. Furthermore, when examining the low-frequency noise of three different types of superconducting resonator - one NbN nanowire, one Al coplanar waveguide, and one Al 3D cavity - we observe a similar power-law dependence of the Lorentzian switching time and amplitude on the circulating power in the resonators, suggesting a common noise mechanism in the three different types of devices.