Francesco Crisa

Evaluating radiation impact on transmon qubits in above and underground facilities

  1. Francesco De Dominicis,
  2. Tanay Roy,
  3. Ambra Mariani,
  4. Mustafa Bal,
  5. Nicola Casali,
  6. Ivan Colantoni,
  7. Francesco Crisa,
  8. Angelo Cruciani,
  9. Fernando Ferroni,
  10. Dounia L Helis,
  11. Lorenzo Pagnanini,
  12. Valerio Pettinacci,
  13. Roman M Pilipenko,
  14. Stefano Pirro,
  15. Andrei Puiu,
  16. Alexander Romanenko,
  17. David v Zanten,
  18. Shaojiang Zhu,
  19. Anna Grassellino,
  20. and Laura Cardani
Superconducting qubits can be sensitive to abrupt energy deposits caused by cosmic rays and ambient radioactivity. Previous studies have focused on understanding possible correlated
effects over time and distance due to cosmic rays. In this study, for the first time, we directly compare the response of a transmon qubit measured initially at the Fermilab SQMS above-ground facilities and then at the deep underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (INFN-LNGS, Italy). We observe same average qubit lifetime T1 of roughly 80 microseconds at above and underground facilities. We then apply a fast decay detection protocol and investigate the time structure, sensitivity and relative rates of triggered events due to radiation versus intrinsic noise, comparing above and underground performance of several high-coherence qubits. Using gamma sources of variable activity we calibrate the response of the qubit to different levels of radiation in an environment with minimal background radiation. Results indicate that qubits respond to a strong gamma source and it is possible to detect particle impacts. However, when comparing above and underground results, we do not observe a difference in radiation induced-like events for these sapphire and niobium-based transmon qubits. We conclude that the majority of these events are not radiation related and to be attributed to other noise sources which by far dominate single qubit errors in modern transmon qubits.
arxiv pdf

Systematic Improvements in Transmon Qubit Coherence Enabled by Niobium Surface Encapsulation

  1. Mustafa Bal,
  2. Akshay A. Murthy,
  3. Shaojiang Zhu,
  4. Francesco Crisa,
  5. Xinyuan You,
  6. Ziwen Huang,
  7. Tanay Roy,
  8. Jaeyel Lee,
  9. David van Zanten,
  10. Roman Pilipenko,
  11. Ivan Nekrashevich,
  12. Daniel Bafia,
  13. Yulia Krasnikova,
  14. Cameron J. Kopas,
  15. Ella O. Lachman,
  16. Duncan Miller,
  17. Josh Y. Mutus,
  18. Matthew J. Reagor,
  19. Hilal Cansizoglu,
  20. Jayss Marshall,
  21. David P. Pappas,
  22. Kim Vu,
  23. Kameshwar Yadavalli,
  24. Jin-Su Oh,
  25. Lin Zhou,
  26. Matthew J. Kramer,
  27. Dominic P. Goronzy,
  28. Carlos G. Torres-Castanedo,
  29. Graham Pritchard,
  30. Vinayak P. Dravid,
  31. James M. Rondinelli,
  32. Michael J. Bedzyk,
  33. Mark C. Hersam,
  34. John Zasadzinski,
  35. Jens Koch,
  36. James A. Sauls,
  37. Alexander Romanenko,
  38. and Anna Grassellino
We present a novel transmon qubit fabrication technique that yields systematic improvements in T1 coherence times. We fabricate devices using an encapsulation strategy that involves
passivating the surface of niobium and thereby preventing the formation of its lossy surface oxide. By maintaining the same superconducting metal and only varying the surface structure, this comparative investigation examining different capping materials and film substrates across different qubit foundries definitively demonstrates the detrimental impact that niobium oxides have on the coherence times of superconducting qubits, compared to native oxides of tantalum, aluminum or titanium nitride. Our surface-encapsulated niobium qubit devices exhibit T1 coherence times 2 to 5 times longer than baseline niobium qubit devices with native niobium oxides. When capping niobium with tantalum, we obtain median qubit lifetimes above 200 microseconds. Our comparative structural and chemical analysis suggests that amorphous niobium suboxides may induce higher losses. These results are in line with high-accuracy measurements of the niobium oxide loss tangent obtained with ultra-high Q superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities. This new surface encapsulation strategy enables further reduction of dielectric losses via passivation with ambient-stable materials, while preserving fabrication and scalable manufacturability thanks to the compatibility with silicon processes.
arxiv pdf