Material defects give rise to parasitic two-level systems (TLS) which present a major source of decoherence in superconducting qubits. Here, we study a strongly coupled TLS that residesin the tunnel barrier of transmon qubit. We use multi-photon spectroscopy and TLS strain tuning to explore the rich spectrum of the interacting three-partite system consisting of TLS, qubit, and its readout resonator. This reveals a strong effective resonant coupling between the TLS and the qubit’s readout resonator which dresses the resonator states and results in a resonance frequency shift that spoils the readout signal. Our finding presents yet another way how material defects can interfere with qubit operation and hinder the realization of solid-state quantum processors.
Superconducting qubits show great promise to realize practical quantum computers from micro-fabricated integrated circuits. However, their solid-state architecture bears the burdenof parasitic modes in qubit materials and the control circuitry which cause decoherence and interfere with qubits. Here, we present evidence that wirebonds, which are used to contact the micro-circuits and to realize chip-to-chip airbridges, may contain parasitic Josephson junctions. In our experiment, such a junction was enclosed in a superconducting loop and so gave rise to the formation an RF-SQUID which interfered with a nearby flux-tunable transmon qubit. Periodic signatures observed in magnetic field sweeps revealed a strong AC-dispersive coupling of the parasitic RF-SQUID to both the qubit and its readout resonator, in addition to the DC-inductive coupling between RF-SQUID and qubit. Our finding sheds light on a previously unknown origin of decoherence due to parasitic Josephson junctions in superconducing circuits.