August 19, 2024 | Alexander Anfverov, Shannon P. Harvey, Fanghui Wan, Jonathan Simon, and David I. Schuster
Superconducting qubits operating above 20 GHz have been demonstrated with high thermal resilience, enabling operation at temperatures up to 250 mK. The study reports transmon qubits fabricated with low-loss niobium trilayer Josephson junctions, achieving dephasing times of ~1 µs and quality factors of ~10⁵. These qubits show minimal decoherence from quasiparticles up to 1 K and are less affected by thermal microwave photons above 50 mK. The high-frequency qubits, operating between 11–24 GHz, benefit from niobium's higher superconducting transition temperature and reduced quasiparticle sensitivity. The thermal resilience of these qubits enables new opportunities for scaling quantum processors, hybrid quantum experiments with high heat dissipation, and higher-frequency qubit platforms. The study also shows that the qubits can operate up to ~200 mK with minimal performance loss, demonstrating their potential for quantum computing applications. The qubits were characterized using microwave spectroscopy, revealing anharmonicity of ~200 MHz and coherence times of ~1 µs. The thermal dependence of coherence was investigated, showing minimal temperature dependence at higher frequencies. The study highlights the importance of increased frequency in improving qubit performance and reducing thermalization requirements. The results suggest that niobium-based qubits could enable higher-frequency, higher-temperature superconducting quantum devices. The fabrication process involved self-aligned niobium trilayer junctions with optimized spacer materials and surface treatments to minimize loss. The qubits were packaged in a K-band (18–27 GHz) circuit board with low-loss design to minimize signal dissipation and reflection. The measurement setup included cryogenic attenuators and amplifiers to ensure low noise and high signal-to-noise ratio. The study demonstrates the potential of high-frequency superconducting qubits for quantum computing and quantum sensing applications.Superconducting qubits operating above 20 GHz have been demonstrated with high thermal resilience, enabling operation at temperatures up to 250 mK. The study reports transmon qubits fabricated with low-loss niobium trilayer Josephson junctions, achieving dephasing times of ~1 µs and quality factors of ~10⁵. These qubits show minimal decoherence from quasiparticles up to 1 K and are less affected by thermal microwave photons above 50 mK. The high-frequency qubits, operating between 11–24 GHz, benefit from niobium's higher superconducting transition temperature and reduced quasiparticle sensitivity. The thermal resilience of these qubits enables new opportunities for scaling quantum processors, hybrid quantum experiments with high heat dissipation, and higher-frequency qubit platforms. The study also shows that the qubits can operate up to ~200 mK with minimal performance loss, demonstrating their potential for quantum computing applications. The qubits were characterized using microwave spectroscopy, revealing anharmonicity of ~200 MHz and coherence times of ~1 µs. The thermal dependence of coherence was investigated, showing minimal temperature dependence at higher frequencies. The study highlights the importance of increased frequency in improving qubit performance and reducing thermalization requirements. The results suggest that niobium-based qubits could enable higher-frequency, higher-temperature superconducting quantum devices. The fabrication process involved self-aligned niobium trilayer junctions with optimized spacer materials and surface treatments to minimize loss. The qubits were packaged in a K-band (18–27 GHz) circuit board with low-loss design to minimize signal dissipation and reflection. The measurement setup included cryogenic attenuators and amplifiers to ensure low noise and high signal-to-noise ratio. The study demonstrates the potential of high-frequency superconducting qubits for quantum computing and quantum sensing applications.