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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17474 |
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| _version_ | 1866916803643441152 |
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| author | Mahuli, Neha Minguzzi, Joaquin Gao, Jiansong Resnick, Rachel Diez, Sandra Raj, Cosmic Marcaud, Guillaume Hunt, Matthew Swenson, Loren Rose, Jefferson Painter, Oskar Jarrige, Ignace |
| author_facet | Mahuli, Neha Minguzzi, Joaquin Gao, Jiansong Resnick, Rachel Diez, Sandra Raj, Cosmic Marcaud, Guillaume Hunt, Matthew Swenson, Loren Rose, Jefferson Painter, Oskar Jarrige, Ignace |
| contents | We present a dry surface treatment combining atomic layer etching and deposition (ALE and ALD) to mitigate dielectric loss in fully fabricated superconducting quantum devices formed from aluminum thin films on silicon. The treatment, performed as a final processing step prior to device packaging, starts by conformally removing the native metal oxide and fabrication residues from the exposed surfaces through ALE before \textit{in situ} encapsulating the metal surfaces with a thin dielectric layer using ALD. We measure a two-fold reduction in loss attributed to two-level system (TLS) absorption in treated aluminum-based resonators and planar transmon qubits. Treated transmons with compact capacitor plates and gaps achieve median $Q$ and $T_1$ values of $3.69 \pm 0.42 \times 10^6$ and $196 \pm 22$~$μ$s, respectively. These improvements were found to be sustained over several months. We discuss how the combination of ALE and ALD reverses fabrication-induced surface damages to significantly and durably improve device performance via a reduction of the TLS defect density in the capacitive elements. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_17474 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Improving the lifetime of aluminum-based superconducting qubits through atomic layer etching and deposition Mahuli, Neha Minguzzi, Joaquin Gao, Jiansong Resnick, Rachel Diez, Sandra Raj, Cosmic Marcaud, Guillaume Hunt, Matthew Swenson, Loren Rose, Jefferson Painter, Oskar Jarrige, Ignace Applied Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics We present a dry surface treatment combining atomic layer etching and deposition (ALE and ALD) to mitigate dielectric loss in fully fabricated superconducting quantum devices formed from aluminum thin films on silicon. The treatment, performed as a final processing step prior to device packaging, starts by conformally removing the native metal oxide and fabrication residues from the exposed surfaces through ALE before \textit{in situ} encapsulating the metal surfaces with a thin dielectric layer using ALD. We measure a two-fold reduction in loss attributed to two-level system (TLS) absorption in treated aluminum-based resonators and planar transmon qubits. Treated transmons with compact capacitor plates and gaps achieve median $Q$ and $T_1$ values of $3.69 \pm 0.42 \times 10^6$ and $196 \pm 22$~$μ$s, respectively. These improvements were found to be sustained over several months. We discuss how the combination of ALE and ALD reverses fabrication-induced surface damages to significantly and durably improve device performance via a reduction of the TLS defect density in the capacitive elements. |
| title | Improving the lifetime of aluminum-based superconducting qubits through atomic layer etching and deposition |
| topic | Applied Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17474 |