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Interacting two-level defects as sources of fluctuating high-frequency noise in superconducting circuits

Clemens Müller, Jürgen Lisenfeld, Alexander Shnirman, and Stefano Poletto
Phys. Rev. B 92, 035442 – Published 31 July 2015

Abstract

Since the very first experiments, superconducting circuits have suffered from strong coupling to environmental noise, destroying quantum coherence and degrading performance. In state-of-the-art experiments, it is found that the relaxation time of superconducting qubits fluctuates as a function of time. We present measurements of such fluctuations in a 3D-transmon circuit and develop a qualitative model based on interactions within a bath of background two-level systems (TLS) which emerge from defects in the device material. In our model, the time-dependent noise density acting on the qubit emerges from its near-resonant coupling to high-frequency TLS which experience energy fluctuations due to their interaction with thermally fluctuating TLS at low frequencies. We support the model by providing experimental evidence of such energy fluctuations observed in a single TLS in a phase qubit circuit.

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  • Received 9 March 2015
  • Revised 3 June 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.035442

©2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Clemens Müller1,2, Jürgen Lisenfeld3, Alexander Shnirman4,5, and Stefano Poletto6,*

  • 1ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
  • 2Département de Physique, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada J1K 2R1
  • 3Physikalisches Institut, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 4Institut für Theorie der Kondensierten Materie, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 5L. D. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics RAS, Kosygina Street 2, 119334 Moscow, Russia
  • 6IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, USA

  • *Present address: QuTech Advanced Research Center and Kavli Institute of Nanosicence, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands.

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Issue

Vol. 92, Iss. 3 — 15 July 2015

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