I. P. C. Cools | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Magnetic landscape of NbTiN superconducting resonators under radio-frequency excitation

Planar superconducting resonators are essential components in quantum circuits and highly sensitive sensors. However, their performance is often compromised by magnetic flux penetration, as the interaction of flux quanta and the induced radio-frequency (RF) currents in the superconducting thin film leads to significant energy dissipation. At low operating temperatures, this issue is aggravated as thermomagnetic instabilities can trigger the sudden propagation of magnetic flux avalanches. An important open question is whether the RF excitation itself stimulates the nucleation and propagation of magnetic flux avalanches in the superconducting thin film. The literature remains inconclusive on this point, partly due to the lack of compelling evidence for this phenomenon. In this work, we address this issue by unprecedented direct visualization of magnetic flux penetration through Faraday rotation imaging under simultaneous RF excitation. We demonstrate that the avalanche activity exhibits a weak dependence on the RF intensity for RF excitations within the linear Campbell regime. However, magnetic flux bursts clearly influence the RF transmission properties of the device. Furthermore, it is possible to unambiguously associate a particular avalanche event with a jump in resonance frequency. This enables us to identify the loci of most deleterious events and understand the distinct origins of upward and downward frequency shifts. These observations are supported by electromagnetic simulations in which local changes of the kinetic inductance mimic flux avalanches and confirm the invasive character of the MOI technique. The insights gained from this study aim to contribute to the broader understanding of the magnetic resilience of superconducting resonators, with the goal of improving their efficiency and stability.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Approaching the ultrastrong coupling regime between an Andreev level and a microwave resonator

Josephson junctions formed in semiconductor nanowires host Andreev bound states and serve as a physical platform to realize Andreev qubits tuned by electrostatic gating. With the Andreev bound state being confined to the nanoscale weak link, it couples to a circuit-QED architecture via the state-dependent supercurrent flowing through the weak link. Thus, increasing this coupling strength is a crucial challenge for this architecture. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication and microwave characterization of a weak link which is defined in an InAs-Al (core-half shell) nanowire and embedded in a superconducting loop with a lumped-element resonator patterned from a thin NbTiN film with high kinetic inductance. We investigated several devices with various weak link lengths and performed spectroscopy that revealed pair transitions and single-quasiparticle transitions arising from spin-orbit split Andreev bound states. Our approach offers a compact geometry and a large resonator impedance above 12 k$Ω$ at a resonator frequency of 8 GHz, which facilitates large coupling in the system. For the pair transitions, the experimentally observed energy level splitting demonstrates the coupling to an Andreev level of 490 MHz. We apply a perturbative model that shows good agreement with the experimental data and extract the maximum coupling of 968~MHz. Moreover, we show that the coupling is even stronger to an Andreev level with a higher transmission. In addition, spectroscopy of single-quasiparticle transitions reveals spin-orbit split Andreev bound states with the extracted spin-photon coupling of 77 MHz.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗