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Superconducting flux qubits with pi-junctions = Supraleitende Flussqubits mit pi-Kontakten

Shcherbakova, Anastasia

Published Jan 1, 2014• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this thesis, we present a fabrication technology of Al/AlOx/Al Josephson junctions on Nb pads. The described technology gives the possibility of combining a variety of Nb-based superconducting circuits, like pi-junction phase-shifters with sub-micron Al/AlOx/Al junctions. Using this approach, we fabricated hybrid Nb/Al flux qubits with and without the SFS-junctions and studied dispersive magnetic field response of these qubits as well as their spectroscopy characteristics.

DOI
10.5445/ir/1000041875

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In this thesis, we present a fabrication technology of Al/AlOx/Al Josephson junctions on Nb pads. The described technology gives the possibility of combining a variety of Nb-based superconducting circuits, like pi-junction phase-shifters with sub-micron Al/AlOx/Al junctions. Using this approach, we fabricated hybrid Nb/Al flux qubits with and without the SFS-junctions and studied dispersive magnetic field response of these qubits as well as their spectroscopy characteristics.
We describe fabrication and testing of composite flux qubits combining Nb- and Al-based superconducting circuit technology. This hybrid approach to making qubits allows for employing π -phase shifters fabricated using well-established Nb-based technology of superconductor–ferromagnet–superconductor Josephson junctions. The important feature here is to obtain high interface transparency between Nb and Al layers without degrading sub-micron shadow mask. We achieve this by in situ Ar etching using e-beam gun. Shadow-evaporated Al/AlO x /Al Josephson junctions with Nb bias pads show the expected current–voltage characteristics with reproducible critical currents. Using this technique, we fabricated composite Nb/Al flux qubits with Nb/CuNi/Nb π -shifters and measured their magnetic field response. The observed offset between the field responses of the qubits with and without π -junction is attributed to the π phase shift. The reported approach can be used for implementing a variety of hybrid Nb/Al superconducting quantum circuits.
Josephson junctions are used as active devices in superconducting electronics and quantum information technology. Outstanding properties are their distinct non-linear electrical characteristics and a usually sinusoidal relation between the current and the superconducting phase difference across the junction. In general the insertion of ferromagnetic material in the barrier of a Josephson junction is associated with a suppression of superconducting correlations. But also new phenomena can arise which may allow new circuit layouts and enhance the performance of applications. This thesis presents a systematic investigation for two concepts to fabricate Josephson junctions with a rather uncommon negative critical current. Such devices exhibit an intrinsic phase slip of Pi between the electrodes, so they are also known as Pi-junctions. Both studies go well beyond existing experiments and in one system a Pi-junction is shown for the first time. All the thin film junctions are based on superconducting Nb electrodes. In a first approach, barriers made from Si and Fe were investigated with respect to the realisation of Pi-junctions by spin-flip processes. The distribution of Fe in the Si matrix was varied from pure layers to disperse compounds. The systematic fabrication of alloy barriers was facilitated by the development of a novel timing-based combinatorial sputtering technique for planetary deposition systems. An orthogonal gradient approach allowed to create binary layer libraries with independent variations of thickness and composition. Second, Nb | AlOx | Nb | Ni60Cu40 | Nb (SIsFS) double barrier junctions were experimentally studied for the occurrence of proximity effect induced order parameter oscillations. Detailed dependencies of the critical current density on the thickness of s-layer and F-layer were acquired and show a remarkable agreement to existing theoretical predictions. Especially a variation of jc and IcRn by the s-layer thickness up to the value of nonmagnetic SIS junctions is notable. Additionally information on the emergence of superconductivity with the s-layer thickness was acquired.
Superconducting qubits stand as a pivotal platform for quantum computing, where scalable fabrication is crucial for building complex quantum circuits. Here, we develop a fabrication process for Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb tri-layer Josephson junctions on 4-inch silicon wafers using full-stepper lithography. Utilizing this process, we have produced both transmon and C-shunt flux qubits. The well-behavedI-Vcharacteristics of junction arrays containing up to 1000 junctions highlight the excellent uniformity and scalability of our process. Furthermore, by introducing a RIE pre-etch before BOE treatment to remove most of the SiO2insulator, we have suppressed dielectric loss and increased the coherence time of the Nb-based transmon qubit by almost 10 times, achieving a quality factor comparable to state-of-the-art Nb-based qubits on sapphire substrates. Given its compatibility with silicon technology, our method paves the way for the integration of multi-qubit processors and the co-fabrication of complex quantum circuits.
We successfully fabricated magnetic Josephson junctions integrated on a Nb four-layer superconducting structure for demonstrating half flux quantum (HFQ) circuits. In the developed process, we adopted a 0-0-π SQUID instead of the 0-π SQUID as the basic element of the HFQ circuits. In this work, we characterized the Nb/PdNi/Nb magnetic Josephson junctions on the Nb four-layer structures fabricated by two different processes. We measured the I-V characteristics of junctions in liquid helium at 4.2 K. The results showed that the fabricated junctions had properties comparable to conventional ones on Si wafers.
Superconducting flux qubits are a promising candidate for solid-state quantum computation. One of the reasons is that implementing a controlled coupling between the qubits appears to be relatively easy, if one uses tunable Josephson junctions. We evaluate possible coupling strengths and show how much extra decoherence is induced by the subgap conductance of a tunable junction. In light of these results, we evaluate several options of using intrinsically shunted junctions and show that based on available technology, Josephson field effect transistors and high-Tc junctions used as π shifters would be a good option, whereas the use of magnetic junctions as π shifters severely limits quantum coherence.