Phonon engineering of atomic-scale defects in superconducting quantum circuits

Abstract

Noise within solid-state systems at low temperatures, where many of the degrees of freedom of the host material are frozen out, can typically be traced back to material defects that support low-energy excitations. These defects can take a wide variety of microscopic forms, and for amorphous materials are broadly described using generic models such as the tunneling two-level systems (TLS) model. Although the details of TLS, and their impact on the low-temperature behavior of materials have been studied since the 1970s, these states have recently taken on further relevance in the field of quantum computing, where the limits to the coherence of superconducting microwave quantum circuits are dominated by TLS. Efforts to mitigate the impact of TLS have thus far focused on circuit design, material selection, and material surface treatment. In this work, we take a new approach that seeks to directly modify the properties of TLS through nanoscale-engineering. This is achieved by periodically structuring the host material, forming an acoustic bandgap that suppresses all microwave-frequency phonons in a GHz-wide frequency band around the operating frequency of a transmon qubit superconducting quantum circuit. For embedded TLS that are strongly coupled to the electric qubit, we measure a pronounced increase in relaxation time by two orders of magnitude when the TLS transition frequency lies within the acoustic bandgap, with the longest $T_1$ time exceeding $5$ milliseconds. Our work paves the way for in-depth investigation and coherent control of TLS, which is essential for deepening our understanding of noise in amorphous materials and advancing solid-state quantum devices.

arXiv comment11 + 25 pages, 4 + 22 figures, 6 tables; comments welcome!

References in corpus (71)

• Quantum sensing
• Charge insensitive qubit design derived from the Cooper pair box
• A Quantum Engineer's Guide to Superconducting Qubits
• Superconducting Qubits: Current State of Play
• Observation of high coherence in Josephson junction qubits measured in a three-dimensional circuit QED architecture
• Decoherence in Josephson Qubits from Dielectric Loss
• Coherent Josephson qubit suitable for scalable quantum integrated circuits
• 1/f noise: implications for solid-state quantum information
• Suppressing Charge Noise Decoherence in Superconducting Charge Qubits
• New material platform for superconducting transmon qubits with coherence times exceeding 0.3 milliseconds
• Towards understanding two-level-systems in amorphous solids -- Insights from quantum circuits
• Decoherence of flux qubits due to 1/f flux noise
• Surface participation and dielectric loss in superconducting qubits
• Fluctuations of Energy-Relaxation Times in Superconducting Qubits
• Decoherence benchmarking of superconducting qubits
• Detection and control of individual nuclear spins using a weakly coupled electron spin
• Optimized optomechanical crystal cavity with acoustic radiation shield
• One-second coherence for a single electron spin coupled to a multi-qubit nuclear-spin environment
• Phononic bandgap nano-acoustic cavity with ultralong phonon lifetime
• Correlated Charge Noise and Relaxation Errors in Superconducting Qubits
• Improved superconducting qubit coherence using titanium nitride
• Relaxation and frequency shifts induced by quasiparticles in superconducting qubits
• Reducing intrinsic loss in superconducting resonators by surface treatment and deep etching of silicon substrates
• Measurement and Control of Quasiparticle Dynamics in a Superconducting Qubit
• Impact of ionizing radiation on superconducting qubit coherence
• Hot non-equilibrium quasiparticles in transmon qubits
• Correlating decoherence in transmon qubits: Low frequency noise by single fluctuators
• Resolving catastrophic error bursts from cosmic rays in large arrays of superconducting qubits
• 1/f Flux Noise in Josephson Phase Qubits
• Microwave-induced coupling of superconducting qubits
• Optomechanical sideband cooling of a micromechanical oscillator close to the quantum ground state
• Dephasing of a superconducting flux qubit
• Quasiparticle relaxation of superconducting qubits in the presence of flux
• Evidence for interacting two-level systems from the 1/f noise of a superconducting resonator
• Electric field spectroscopy of material defects in transmon qubits
• Suppressing relaxation in superconducting qubits by quasiparticle pumping
• Non-Poissonian Quantum Jumps of a Fluxonium Qubit due to Quasiparticle Excitations
• Lifetime and Coherence of Two-Level Defects in a Josephson Junction
• Quantum two-level systems in Josephson junctions as naturally formed qubits
• Generalized Tunneling Model for TLS in amorphous materials and its predictions for their dephasing and the noise in superconducting microresonators
• A scalable superconducting quantum simulator with long-range connectivity based on a photonic bandgap metamaterial
• Investigating surface loss effects in superconducting transmon qubits
• Time-domain characterization and correction of on-chip distortion of control pulses in a quantum processor
• Measuring the temperature dependence of individual two-level systems by direct coherent control
• Decoherence spectroscopy with individual two-level tunneling defects
• TLS Dynamics in a Superconducting Qubit Due to Background Ionizing Radiation
• Quantum Friction in Nanomechanical Oscillators at Millikelvin Temperatures
• Polaronic model of Two Level Systems in amorphous solids
• Merged-Element Transmons: Design and Qubit Performance
• Coexistence of nonequilibrium density and equilibrium energy distribution of quasiparticles in a superconducting qubit
• Evolution of $1/f$ Flux Noise in Superconducting Qubits with Weak Magnetic Fields
• One- and two-photon spectroscopy of a flux qubit coupled to a microscopic defect
• Measurement of transverse hyperfine interaction by forbidden transitions
• Two-level system hyperpolarization using a quantum Szilard engine
• Loss channels affecting lithium niobate phononic crystal resonators at cryogenic temperature
• Quantitative evaluation of defect-models in superconducting phase qubits
• Merged-element transmon
• Probing individual tunneling fluctuators with coherently controlled tunneling systems
• Multi-photon spectroscopy of a hybrid quantum system
• Relaxation of Josephson qubits due to strong coupling to two-level systems
• Electronic Decoherence of Two-Level Systems in a Josephson Junction
• Superconducting qubits on silicon substrates for quantum device integration
• Quantum bath suppression in a superconducting circuit by immersion cooling
• Enhancing the Coherence of Superconducting Quantum Bits with Electric Fields
• Prolonged orbital relaxation by locally modified phonon density of states for SiV${}^{-}$ center in nanodiamonds
• Dimensional transformation of defect-induced noise, dissipation, and nonlinearity
• State-dependent phonon-limited spin relaxation of nitrogen-vacancy centers
• Protecting solid-state spins from strongly coupled environment
• Protecting superconducting qubits from phonon mediated decay
• Entangling microscopic defects via a macroscopic quantum shuttle
• Observation of discrete charge states of a coherent two-level system in a superconducting qubit

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Engineering Phonon-Qubit Interactions using Phononic Crystals
• Acceptor-induced bulk dielectric loss in superconducting circuits on silicon
• Small but large: Single organic molecules as hybrid platforms for quantum technologies
• Characterization of drive-induced unwanted state transitions in superconducting circuits
• Thin-film quartz for high-coherence piezoelectric phononic crystal resonators
• Scalable Parameter Design for Superconducting Quantum Circuits with Graph Neural Networks
• Purcell-enhanced spin-phonon coupling with a single color center
• Decoherence of surface phonons in a quantum acoustic system
• Observation and mitigation of microwave echoes from dielectric defects in Josephson traveling wave amplifiers
• Asymmetry Control in a Parametric Oscillator for the Quantum Simulation of Chemical Activation
• Generation of frequency-bin-encoded dual-rail cluster states via time-frequency multiplexing of microwave photonic qubits
• Molecular-optomechanical phonon laser
• Time-resolved spectral diffusion of a multimode mechanical memory