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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Schlager, Christian, Albert, Romain, Kirchmair, Gerhard
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.07431
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author Schlager, Christian
Albert, Romain
Kirchmair, Gerhard
author_facet Schlager, Christian
Albert, Romain
Kirchmair, Gerhard
contents In traveling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) low-loss capacitors are necessary to provide 50 $Ω$ impedance matching to the increased inductance that is brought in by the nonlinear elements used for amplification, be it Josephson junctions or high kinetic inductance materials. Here we report on the development of a fabrication process for vacuum-gap microstrips, a design in which the ground plane is suspended in close proximity above the center conductor without the support of a dielectric. In addition to high-capacitance transmission lines, this architecture also enables air-bridges and compact parallel-plate capacitors. The performance of the fabrication is examined using distributed aluminum and granular aluminum resonators in a cryogenic dilution refrigerator setup, showing quality factors on par with the fabrication processes used in state-of-the-art TWPAs. In addition to characterizing the dependence of the quality factors on power, also their behavior with respect to temperature is explored, applying a model based on thermal quasi-particles and saturable two-level systems (TLS), showing that the quality factors of the resonators are limited by TLS.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_07431
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fabrication and characterization of vacuum-gap microstrip resonators
Schlager, Christian
Albert, Romain
Kirchmair, Gerhard
Quantum Physics
In traveling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) low-loss capacitors are necessary to provide 50 $Ω$ impedance matching to the increased inductance that is brought in by the nonlinear elements used for amplification, be it Josephson junctions or high kinetic inductance materials. Here we report on the development of a fabrication process for vacuum-gap microstrips, a design in which the ground plane is suspended in close proximity above the center conductor without the support of a dielectric. In addition to high-capacitance transmission lines, this architecture also enables air-bridges and compact parallel-plate capacitors. The performance of the fabrication is examined using distributed aluminum and granular aluminum resonators in a cryogenic dilution refrigerator setup, showing quality factors on par with the fabrication processes used in state-of-the-art TWPAs. In addition to characterizing the dependence of the quality factors on power, also their behavior with respect to temperature is explored, applying a model based on thermal quasi-particles and saturable two-level systems (TLS), showing that the quality factors of the resonators are limited by TLS.
title Fabrication and characterization of vacuum-gap microstrip resonators
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.07431