Guangming Cheng

Eliminating Surface Oxides of Superconducting Circuits with Noble Metal Encapsulation

  1. Ray D. Chang,
  2. Nana Shumiya,
  3. Russell A. McLellan,
  4. Yifan Zhang,
  5. Matthew P. Bland,
  6. Faranak Bahrami,
  7. Junsik Mun,
  8. Chenyu Zhou,
  9. Kim Kisslinger,
  10. Guangming Cheng,
  11. Alexander C. Pakpour-Tabrizi,
  12. Nan Yao,
  13. Yimei Zhu,
  14. Mingzhao Liu,
  15. Robert J. Cava,
  16. Sarang Gopalakrishnan,
  17. Andrew A. Houck,
  18. and Nathalie P. de Leon
The lifetime of superconducting qubits is limited by dielectric loss, and a major source of dielectric loss is the native oxide present at the surface of the superconducting metal.
Specifically, tantalum-based superconducting qubits have been demonstrated with record lifetimes, but a major source of loss is the presence of two-level systems (TLSs) in the surface tantalum oxide. Here, we demonstrate a strategy for avoiding oxide formation by encapsulating the tantalum with noble metals that do not form native oxide. By depositing a few nanometers of Au or AuPd alloy before breaking vacuum, we completely suppress tantalum oxide formation. Microwave loss measurements of superconducting resonators reveal that the noble metal is proximitized, with a superconducting gap over 80% of the bare tantalum at thicknesses where the oxide is fully suppressed. We find that losses in resonators fabricated by subtractive etching are dominated by oxides on the sidewalls, suggesting total surface encapsulation by additive fabrication as a promising strategy for eliminating surface oxide TLS loss in superconducting qubits.
arxiv pdf

New material platform for superconducting transmon qubits with coherence times exceeding 0.3 milliseconds

  1. Alex P. M. Place,
  2. Lila V. H. Rodgers,
  3. Pranav Mundada,
  4. Basil M. Smitham,
  5. Mattias Fitzpatrick,
  6. Zhaoqi Leng,
  7. Anjali Premkumar,
  8. Jacob Bryon,
  9. Sara Sussman,
  10. Guangming Cheng,
  11. Trisha Madhavan,
  12. Harshvardhan K. Babla,
  13. Berthold Jäck,
  14. Andras Gyenis,
  15. Nan Yao,
  16. Robert J. Cava,
  17. Nathalie P. de Leon,
  18. and Andrew A. Houck
The superconducting transmon qubit is a leading platform for quantum computing and quantum science. Building large, useful quantum systems based on transmon qubits will require significant
improvements in qubit relaxation and coherence times, which are orders of magnitude shorter than limits imposed by bulk properties of the constituent materials. This indicates that relaxation likely originates from uncontrolled surfaces, interfaces, and contaminants. Previous efforts to improve qubit lifetimes have focused primarily on designs that minimize contributions from surfaces. However, significant improvements in the lifetime of two-dimensional transmon qubits have remained elusive for several years. Here, we fabricate two-dimensional transmon qubits that have both lifetimes and coherence times with dynamical decoupling exceeding 0.3 milliseconds by replacing niobium with tantalum in the device. We have observed increased lifetimes for seventeen devices, indicating that these material improvements are robust, paving the way for higher gate fidelities in multi-qubit processors.
arxiv pdf