Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Piezosähköiset värähtelijät kvanttialueella

Välimaa, Alpo

Published Jan 1, 2022• 10 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Acoustic modes—in the form of collective vibrations trapped between the parallel and polished surfaces of a crystalline cavity—provide an intriguing opportunity for probing the quantum-mechanical regime of macroscopical mechanical resonators. Moreover, the exceptional quality factors in a compact size from mm to μm motivate the integration of acoustic resonators into quantum circuits to explore the applications of a quantum hybrid system.While the acoustic modes of a crystal are commonly isolated from electrical dynamics, piezoelectricityis employed to transduce energy between the two domains. In the first part of this thesis, we investigate the means to improve the quality factor of a low frequency plano-convex monolithic quartz resonator. The resonator is 7mm indiameter and 250 μm in thickness, made only of only piezoelectric crystalline material. By the removal of clamping losses and incorporating a distant non-contact measurement setup,we demonstrate quality factors as high as 108 at cryogenic temperatures close to the quantumground state. Additionally, we model the electromechanical clamping losses of a particular grounding setup using temperature-dependent data and the acoustic transmission line based Mason’s model. In the latter part of this thesis, we couple a bulk acoustic high-overtone resonator (HBAR) with a transmon qubit. The electrical actuation of GHz-frequency sound in a HBAR is based on a μm-thin piezo film grown on a low-loss crystalline non-piezo bulk substrate. With an analogy to an acoustic musical instrument, the driven oscillations are amplified at the resonant frequencies of the acoustic cavity, with the addition that a small subset of such modes are selectively listened by the qubit. By the introduction of the acoustic overtones, high quality factors are accessible at the high frequencies of a transmon qubit,while the coupling between the two systems is distributed over the multitude of modes. I model this coupling in detail with respect to the system parameters for guiding the design of related quantum acoustic devices. I cover several different parameter regimes and explore the rich physics taking place in the multimodal hybrid system: Landau-Zener Stuckelberg interference, photon assisted sideband transitions and parametrically modulated coupling that involve the resonant periodical exchange of energy quanta known as vacuum Rabi oscillations, and drive-dependent multiphonon transitions. Despite the otherwise common difficulty to observe quantum mechanics in a harmonic oscillator, we observe purely quantum mechanical effects in the macroscopic resonator, such as a specific square root dependence of the transition energies on the quantum number.

Related papers

Loss Mechanisms in High-Coherence Multimode Mechanical Resonators Coupled to Superconducting Circuits

Raquel Garcia-Belles, Alexander Anferov, Lukas Deeg +14 more

Circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) devices have a wide range of applications in quantum science, all of which depend crucially on the quantum coherence of the mechanical subsystem. In this context, high-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonators (HBARs) are particularly promising, since they have shown very high quality factors with negligible dephasing. However, the introduction of piezoelectric films, which are necessary for coupling to a superconducting circuit, can lead to additional loss channels, such as surface scattering and two-level systems. Here, we study the acoustic dissipation of HBAR resonators in cQAD systems and find that the defect density of the piezoelectric material and its interface with the bulk are limiting factors for the coherence. We measure acoustic modes with phonon lifetimes up to 400 mu s and lifetime-limited coherence times approaching 1 ms in the quantum regime. When coupled to a superconducting qubit, this leads to a hybrid system with a large quantum coherence cooperativity of CT2 1/4 1.1 & times; 105. These results represent a new milestone for the performance of cQAD devices and offer concrete paths forward for further improvements.

•Jan 1, 2026•0 citations

Loss Mechanisms in High-coherence Multimode Mechanical Resonators Coupled to Superconducting Circuits

Raquel Garcia Belles, Alexander Anferov, Lukas F. Deeg +14 more

Circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) devices have a wide range of applications in quantum science, all of which depend crucially on the quantum coherence of the mechanical subsystem. In this context, high-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonators (HBARs) are particularly promising, since they have shown very high quality factors with negligible dephasing. However, the introduction of piezoelectric films, which are necessary for coupling to a superconducting circuit, can lead to additional loss channels, such as surface scattering and two-level systems (TLS). Here, we study the acoustic dissipation of HBAR resonators in cQAD systems and find that the defect density of the piezoelectric material and its interface with the bulk are limiting factors for the coherence. We measure acoustic modes with phonon lifetimes up to 400 $μ$s and lifetime-limited coherence times approaching one millisecond in the quantum regime. When coupled to a superconducting qubit, this leads to a hybrid system with a large quantum coherence cooperativity of $C_{T_2}=1.1\times10^5$. These results represent a new milestone for the performance of cQAD devices and offer concrete paths forward for further improvements.

quant-pharXiv:2602.22117•PRX Quantum•Feb 26, 2026•3 citations

Interfacing planar superconducting qubits with high overtone bulk acoustic phonons

Mikael Kervinen, Ilkka Rissanen, Mika A. Sillanpää

Mechanical resonators are a promising way for interfacing qubits in order to realize hybrid quantum systems that offer great possibilities for applications. Mechanical systems can have very long energy lifetimes, and they can be further interfaced to other systems. Moreover, integration of a mechanical oscillator with qubits creates a potential platform for the exploration of quantum physics in macroscopic mechanical degrees of freedom. The utilization of high overtone bulk acoustic resonators coupled to superconducting qubits is an intriguing platform towards these goals. These resonators exhibit a combination of high-frequency and high-quality factors. They can reach their quantum ground state at dilution refrigeration temperatures and they can be strongly coupled to superconducting qubits via their piezoelectric effect. In this paper, we demonstrate our system where bulk acoustic phonons of a high overtone resonator are coupled to a transmon qubit in a planar circuit architecture. We show that the bulk acoustic phonons are interacting with the qubit in a simple design architecture at the quantum level, representing further progress towards the quantum control of mechanical motion.

arXiv:1802.06642•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•May 29, 2018•47 citations

Collective Dynamics in Circuit Quantum Acoustodynamics with a Macroscopic Resonator

Libo Zhang, Chilong Liu, Guixu Xie +9 more

Collective dynamics in engineered quantum systems offer a unique and versatile platform for exploring how many-body correlations bridge microscopic entanglement and macroscopic behavior. In this work, we report collective Dicke dynamics of acoustic modes in a macroscopic high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator (HBAR). To achieve this, we engineer a hybrid quantum acoustodynamic system comprising an HBAR strongly coupled to a superconducting transmon qubit. The HBAR device is distinctive in the sense that its narrow mode spacing, together with enhanced qubit-mode coupling strength, gives rise to efficient coupling between the transmon and clusters of near-resonant modes. By harnessing the system properties, we observe collective dynamics involving clusters composed by two or three mechanical modes, where their non-resonant spectrum allows for the observation of the transition between the Dicke static regime to dynamically induced timed-Dicke one. The coherent collective behavior of the system is supported by time-domain measurements of the qubit's purity, indicating the quantum nature of the collective dynamics. Overall, our work establishes HBAR-based hybrid quantum system as a promising platform for exploring many-body collective dynamics in macroscopic mechanical systems.

quant-pharXiv:2603.20800•Mar 24, 2026•0 citations

Quartz-superconductor quantum electromechanical system

M. J. Woolley, Muhammad F. Emzir, Gerard J Milburn +4 more

We propose and analyze a quantum electromechanical system composed of a monolithic quartz bulk acoustic wave oscillator coupled to a superconducting transmon qubit via an intermediate $LC$ electrical circuit. Monolithic quartz oscillators offer unprecedentedly high effective masses and quality factors for the investigation of mechanical oscillators in the quantum regime. Ground-state cooling of such mechanical modes via resonant piezoelectric coupling to an $LC$ circuit, which is itself sideband cooled via coupling to a transmon qubit, is shown to be feasible. The fluorescence spectrum of the qubit, containing motional sideband contributions due to the couplings to the oscillator modes, is obtained and the imprint of the electromechanical steady state on the spectrum is determined. This allows the qubit to function both as a cooling resource for, and transducer of, the mechanical oscillator. The results described are relevant to any hybrid quantum system composed of a qubit coupled to two (coupled or uncoupled) thermal oscillator modes.

arXiv:1604.01834•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jun 28, 2016•10 citations

High-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonators as a platform for microwave-to-optical quantum state transfer

Tom Schatteburg

As superconducting quantum computing devices grow more and more powerful [1–3], the quest to connect them over large-scale distances [4] becomes increasingly relevant. Microwave-to-optical transducers offer a pathway for such connections via a low-loss and thermal noise-free optical fiber network. However, achieving simultaneously high efficiency and low added noise is currently limited by a trade-off between both quantities due to pump absorption heating [5–9]. High-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonators (HBARs) promise a solution to this problem due to their crystalline material and low surface-to-bulk ratio. In this thesis, we introduce an HBAR-based microwave-to-optical transducer to achieve quantum state transfer. As a first milestone, we build a Brillouin-optomechanical cavity that self-aligns when cooled down and is relatively insensitive to vibrations, which allows optomechanical coupling in an environment that is compatible with superconducting circuits. We measure the phonon mode occupation of the HBAR to be below 0.5, demonstrating the heaviest mechanical object measured in the quantum ground state to date. In addition, we show that the mode occupations are insensitive to laser pump power, indicating negligible absorption heating and confirming the unique advantage of this system. We then build a transducer device which combines Brillouin-optomechanical coupling and piezo-electromechanical coupling to a superconducting qubit in one geometry. We can align the optical cavity mode to pass through the ring-shaped antenna of the superconducting qubit without affecting the optical finesse. This allows us to measure optomechanical coupling in this device as a next milestone towards high-efficiency, low noise microwave-to-optical transduction.

•Jan 1, 2025•0 citations
Acoustic modes—in the form of collective vibrations trapped between the parallel and polished surfaces of a crystalline cavity—provide an intriguing opportunity for probing the quantum-mechanical regime of macroscopical mechanical resonators. Moreover, the exceptional quality factors in a compact size from mm to μm motivate the integration of acoustic resonators into quantum circuits to explore the applications of a quantum hybrid system.While the acoustic modes of a crystal are commonly isolated from electrical dynamics, piezoelectricityis employed to transduce energy between the two domains. In the first part of this thesis, we investigate the means to improve the quality factor of a low frequency plano-convex monolithic quartz resonator. The resonator is 7mm indiameter and 250 μm in thickness, made only of only piezoelectric crystalline material. By the removal of clamping losses and incorporating a distant non-contact measurement setup,we demonstrate quality factors as high as 108 at cryogenic temperatures close to the quantumground state. Additionally, we model the electromechanical clamping losses of a particular grounding setup using temperature-dependent data and the acoustic transmission line based Mason’s model. In the latter part of this thesis, we couple a bulk acoustic high-overtone resonator (HBAR) with a transmon qubit. The electrical actuation of GHz-frequency sound in a HBAR is based on a μm-thin piezo film grown on a low-loss crystalline non-piezo bulk substrate. With an analogy to an acoustic musical instrument, the driven oscillations are amplified at the resonant frequencies of the acoustic cavity, with the addition that a small subset of such modes are selectively listened by the qubit. By the introduction of the acoustic overtones, high quality factors are accessible at the high frequencies of a transmon qubit,while the coupling between the two systems is distributed over the multitude of modes. I model this coupling in detail with respect to the system parameters for guiding the design of related quantum acoustic devices. I cover several different parameter regimes and explore the rich physics taking place in the multimodal hybrid system: Landau-Zener Stuckelberg interference, photon assisted sideband transitions and parametrically modulated coupling that involve the resonant periodical exchange of energy quanta known as vacuum Rabi oscillations, and drive-dependent multiphonon transitions. Despite the otherwise common difficulty to observe quantum mechanics in a harmonic oscillator, we observe purely quantum mechanical effects in the macroscopic resonator, such as a specific square root dependence of the transition energies on the quantum number.
Circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) devices have a wide range of applications in quantum science, all of which depend crucially on the quantum coherence of the mechanical subsystem. In this context, high-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonators (HBARs) are particularly promising, since they have shown very high quality factors with negligible dephasing. However, the introduction of piezoelectric films, which are necessary for coupling to a superconducting circuit, can lead to additional loss channels, such as surface scattering and two-level systems. Here, we study the acoustic dissipation of HBAR resonators in cQAD systems and find that the defect density of the piezoelectric material and its interface with the bulk are limiting factors for the coherence. We measure acoustic modes with phonon lifetimes up to 400 mu s and lifetime-limited coherence times approaching 1 ms in the quantum regime. When coupled to a superconducting qubit, this leads to a hybrid system with a large quantum coherence cooperativity of CT2 1/4 1.1 & times; 105. These results represent a new milestone for the performance of cQAD devices and offer concrete paths forward for further improvements.
Circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) devices have a wide range of applications in quantum science, all of which depend crucially on the quantum coherence of the mechanical subsystem. In this context, high-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonators (HBARs) are particularly promising, since they have shown very high quality factors with negligible dephasing. However, the introduction of piezoelectric films, which are necessary for coupling to a superconducting circuit, can lead to additional loss channels, such as surface scattering and two-level systems (TLS). Here, we study the acoustic dissipation of HBAR resonators in cQAD systems and find that the defect density of the piezoelectric material and its interface with the bulk are limiting factors for the coherence. We measure acoustic modes with phonon lifetimes up to 400 μμμs and lifetime-limited coherence times approaching one millisecond in the quantum regime. When coupled to a superconducting qubit, this leads to a hybrid system with a large quantum coherence cooperativity of CT2=1.1×105C_{T_2}=1.1\times10^5CT2​​=1.1×105. These results represent a new milestone for the performance of cQAD devices and offer concrete paths forward for further improvements.
Mechanical resonators are a promising way for interfacing qubits in order to realize hybrid quantum systems that offer great possibilities for applications. Mechanical systems can have very long energy lifetimes, and they can be further interfaced to other systems. Moreover, integration of a mechanical oscillator with qubits creates a potential platform for the exploration of quantum physics in macroscopic mechanical degrees of freedom. The utilization of high overtone bulk acoustic resonators coupled to superconducting qubits is an intriguing platform towards these goals. These resonators exhibit a combination of high-frequency and high-quality factors. They can reach their quantum ground state at dilution refrigeration temperatures and they can be strongly coupled to superconducting qubits via their piezoelectric effect. In this paper, we demonstrate our system where bulk acoustic phonons of a high overtone resonator are coupled to a transmon qubit in a planar circuit architecture. We show that the bulk acoustic phonons are interacting with the qubit in a simple design architecture at the quantum level, representing further progress towards the quantum control of mechanical motion.
Collective dynamics in engineered quantum systems offer a unique and versatile platform for exploring how many-body correlations bridge microscopic entanglement and macroscopic behavior. In this work, we report collective Dicke dynamics of acoustic modes in a macroscopic high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator (HBAR). To achieve this, we engineer a hybrid quantum acoustodynamic system comprising an HBAR strongly coupled to a superconducting transmon qubit. The HBAR device is distinctive in the sense that its narrow mode spacing, together with enhanced qubit-mode coupling strength, gives rise to efficient coupling between the transmon and clusters of near-resonant modes. By harnessing the system properties, we observe collective dynamics involving clusters composed by two or three mechanical modes, where their non-resonant spectrum allows for the observation of the transition between the Dicke static regime to dynamically induced timed-Dicke one. The coherent collective behavior of the system is supported by time-domain measurements of the qubit's purity, indicating the quantum nature of the collective dynamics. Overall, our work establishes HBAR-based hybrid quantum system as a promising platform for exploring many-body collective dynamics in macroscopic mechanical systems.
We propose and analyze a quantum electromechanical system composed of a monolithic quartz bulk acoustic wave oscillator coupled to a superconducting transmon qubit via an intermediate LCLCLC electrical circuit. Monolithic quartz oscillators offer unprecedentedly high effective masses and quality factors for the investigation of mechanical oscillators in the quantum regime. Ground-state cooling of such mechanical modes via resonant piezoelectric coupling to an LCLCLC circuit, which is itself sideband cooled via coupling to a transmon qubit, is shown to be feasible. The fluorescence spectrum of the qubit, containing motional sideband contributions due to the couplings to the oscillator modes, is obtained and the imprint of the electromechanical steady state on the spectrum is determined. This allows the qubit to function both as a cooling resource for, and transducer of, the mechanical oscillator. The results described are relevant to any hybrid quantum system composed of a qubit coupled to two (coupled or uncoupled) thermal oscillator modes.
As superconducting quantum computing devices grow more and more powerful [1–3], the quest to connect them over large-scale distances [4] becomes increasingly relevant. Microwave-to-optical transducers offer a pathway for such connections via a low-loss and thermal noise-free optical fiber network. However, achieving simultaneously high efficiency and low added noise is currently limited by a trade-off between both quantities due to pump absorption heating [5–9]. High-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonators (HBARs) promise a solution to this problem due to their crystalline material and low surface-to-bulk ratio. In this thesis, we introduce an HBAR-based microwave-to-optical transducer to achieve quantum state transfer. As a first milestone, we build a Brillouin-optomechanical cavity that self-aligns when cooled down and is relatively insensitive to vibrations, which allows optomechanical coupling in an environment that is compatible with superconducting circuits. We measure the phonon mode occupation of the HBAR to be below 0.5, demonstrating the heaviest mechanical object measured in the quantum ground state to date. In addition, we show that the mode occupations are insensitive to laser pump power, indicating negligible absorption heating and confirming the unique advantage of this system. We then build a transducer device which combines Brillouin-optomechanical coupling and piezo-electromechanical coupling to a superconducting qubit in one geometry. We can align the optical cavity mode to pass through the ring-shaped antenna of the superconducting qubit without affecting the optical finesse. This allows us to measure optomechanical coupling in this device as a next milestone towards high-efficiency, low noise microwave-to-optical transduction.