arXiv subjects

Jürgen Lisenfeld

Publications and source records attributed to Jürgen Lisenfeld.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Mapping the positions of Two-Level-Systems on the surface of a superconducting transmon qubit

The coherence of superconducting quantum computers is severely limited by material defects that create parasitic two-level-systems (TLS). Progress is complicated by lacking understanding how TLS are created and in which parts of a qubit circuit they are most detrimental. Here, we present a method to determine the individual positions of TLS at the surface of a transmon qubit. We employ a set of on-chip gate electrodes near the qubit to generate local DC electric fields that are used to tune the TLS' resonance frequencies. The TLS position is inferred from the strengths at which TLS couple to different electrodes and comparing them to electric field simulations. We found that the majority of detectable surface-TLS was residing on the leads of the qubit's Josephson junction, despite the dominant contribution of its coplanar capacitor to electric field energy and surface area. This indicates that the TLS density is significantly enhanced near shadow-evaporated electrodes fabricated by lift-off techniques. Our method is useful to identify critical circuit regions where TLS contribute most to decoherence, and can guide improvements in qubit design and fabrication methods.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Benchmarking the quality of multiplexed qubit readout beyond assignment fidelity

The accurate measurement of quantum two-level objects (qubits) is crucial for developing quantum computers. Over the last decade, the measure of choice for benchmarking readout routines for superconducting qubits has been assignment fidelity. However, this method only focuses on the preparation of computational basis states and therefore does not provide a complete characterization of the readout. Here, we expand the focus to the use of detector tomography to fully characterize multiqubit readout of superconducting transmon qubits. The impact of different readout parameters on the rate of information extraction is studied using quantum state reconstruction infidelity as a proxy. The results are then compared with assignment fidelities, showing good agreement for separable two-qubit states. We therefore propose the rate of infidelity convergence as a validation tool for assignment fidelity and a more comprehensive benchmark for single- and multiqubit readout optimization. To make the best use of experimental resources, we investigate the most efficient distribution of a limited shot budget between detector tomography and state reconstruction within the context of single- and two-qubit experiments. To address the growing interest in three-qubit gates and test scalability of the validation tool, we perform three-qubit quantum state tomography that goes beyond conventional readout-error-mitigation methods and find a factor of 30 reduction in quantum infidelity. Our results demonstrate that qubit readout correlations are not induced by a significantly reduced state distinguishability. Consequently, correlation coefficients can serve as a valuable tool in qubit readout optimization.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Gradiometric, Fully Tunable C-Shunted Flux Qubits

Fully tunable flux qubits offer in-situ and independent controls of their energy potential asymmetry and tunnel barrier, making them versatile tools for quantum computation and the study of decoherence sources. However, only short coherence times have been demonstrated so far with this type of qubit. Here, we present a capacitively shunted flux qubit featuring improved relaxation times up to T1 = 25 $μ$s and a frequency tunability range of $\sim$ 20 GHz at the flux-insensitive sweet spot. As a model application, we demonstrate detection of two-level tunneling defects in a frequency range spanning one octave.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Investigation of Parasitic Two-Level Systems in Merged-Element Transmon Qubits

In conventional transmon qubits, decoherence is dominated by a large number of parasitic two-level systems (TLS) residing at the edges of its large area coplanar shunt capacitor and junction leads. Avoiding these defects by improvements in design, fabrication and materials proved to be a significant challenge that so far led to limited progress. The merged-element transmon qubit (''mergemon''), a recently proposed paradigm shift in transmon design, attempts to address these issues by engineering the Josephson junction to act as its own shunt capacitor. With its energy mostly confined within the junctions, efforts required to improve qubit coherence can be concentrated on the junction barrier, a potentially easier to control interface compared to exposed circuit areas. Incorporating an additional aluminium deposition and oxidation into the in-situ bandaged Niemeyer-Dolan technique, we were able to fabricate flux-tunable mergemon qubits achieving mean $T_{1}$ relaxation times of up to $130μs$ ($Q \approx 3.3 \times 10^{6}$). TLS spectroscopy under applied strain and electric fields, together with systematic design variations, revealed that even for mergemon qubits - despite their significantly reduced footprint and increased junction barrier volume - careful design considerations are still essential to avoid coherence limitations due to surface loss.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Dielectric waveguide setup tested with a superconducting millimeter-wave Fabry-Pérot interferometer at milli-Kelvin temperatures

We propose and test a cryogenic setup comprising dielectric waveguides for mm-wave frequencies in the range of 75-110 GHz and temperatures down to 10 mK. The targeted applications are quantum technologies at millimeter-wave frequencies, which require measurements at low photon numbers and noise. We show that the high density polyethylene waveguides combine a frequency independent low photon loss with a very low heat conductance. Black high density polyethylene shows a higher attenuation, which is useful to block thermal photons in a cryogenic environment. The dielectric waveguides are thermally anchored and attenuated at several stages of the cryostat. They are individually protected by additional metallic shields to suppress mutual cross-talk and external interference. With this setup, multiple superconducting resonances of a Fabry-Pérot cavity were measured at 10 mK. We find quality factors up to 15 million in the single photon limit for resonances above 100 GHz. These results show no evident influence of atomic two-level systems in the cavity.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2023

Observation of giant two-level systems in a granular superconductor

Disordered thin films are a common choice of material for superconducting, high impedance circuits used in quantum information or particle detector physics. A wide selection of materials with different levels of granularity are available, but, despite low microwave losses being reported for some, the high degree of disorder always implies the presence of intrinsic defects. Prominently, quantum circuits are prone to interact with two-level systems (TLS), typically originating from solid state defects in the dielectric parts of the circuit, like surface oxides or tunneling barriers. We present an experimental investigation of TLS in granular aluminum thin films under applied mechanical strain and electric fields. The analysis reveals a class of strongly coupled TLS having electric dipole moments up to 30 eA, an order of magnitude larger than dipole moments commonly reported for solid state defects. Notably, these large dipole moments appear more often in films with a higher resistivity. Our observations shed new light on granular superconductors and may have implications for their usage as a quantum circuit material.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2023

Enhancing the Coherence of Superconducting Quantum Bits with Electric Fields

In the endeavour to make quantum computers a reality, integrated superconducting circuits have become a promising architecture. A major challenge of this approach is decoherence originating from spurious atomic tunneling defects at the interfaces of qubit electrodes, which may resonantly absorb energy from the qubit's oscillating electric field and reduce the qubit's energy relaxation time $T_1$. Here, we show that qubit coherence can be improved by tuning dominating defects away from the qubit resonance using an applied DC-electric field. We demonstrate a method that optimizes the applied field bias and enhances the 30-minute averaged qubit $T_1$ time by 23\%. We also discuss how local gate electrodes can be implemented in superconducting quantum processors to enable simultaneous in-situ coherence optimization of individual qubits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Probing defect densities at the edges and inside Josephson junctions of superconducting qubits

Tunneling defects in disordered materials form spurious two-level systems which are a major source of decoherence for micro-fabricated quantum devices. For superconducting qubits, defects in tunnel barriers of submicrometer-sized Josephson junctions couple strongest to the qubit, which necessitates optimization of the junction fabrication to mitigate defect formation. Here, we investigate whether defects appear predominantly at the edges or deep within the amorphous tunnel barrier of a junction. For this, we compare defect densities in differently shaped Al/AlO$_x$/Al Josephson junctions that are part of a Transmon qubit. We observe that the number of detectable junction-defects is proportional to the junction area, and does not significantly scale with the junction's circumference, which proposes that defects are evenly distributed inside the tunnel barrier. Moreover, we find very similar defect densities in thermally grown tunnel barriers that were formed either directly after the base electrode was deposited, or in a separate deposition step after removal of native oxide by Argon ion milling.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

In-situ bandaged Josephson junctions for superconducting quantum processors

Shadow evaporation is commonly used to micro-fabricate the key element of superconducting qubits - the Josephson junction. However, in conventional two-angle deposition circuit topology, unwanted stray Josephson junctions are created which contribute to dielectric loss. So far, this could be avoided by shorting the stray junctions with a so-called bandage layer deposited in an additional lithography step, which may further contaminate the chip surface. Here, we present an improved shadow evaporation technique allowing one to fabricate sub-micrometer-sized Josephson junctions together with bandage layers in a single lithography step. We also show that junction aging is significantly reduced when junction electrodes are oxidized in an oxygen atmosphere directly after deposition.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Quantum Sensors for Microscopic Tunneling Systems

The anomalous low-temperature properties of glasses arise from intrinsic excitable entities, so-called tunneling Two-Level-Systems (TLS), whose microscopic nature has been baffling solid-state physicists for decades. TLS have become particularly important for micro-fabricated quantum devices such as superconducting qubits, where they are a major source of decoherence. Here, we present a method to characterize individual TLS in virtually arbitrary materials deposited as thin-films. The material is used as the dielectric in a capacitor that shunts the Josephson junction of a superconducting qubit. In such a hybrid quantum system the qubit serves as an interface to detect and control individual TLS. We demonstrate spectroscopic measurements of TLS resonances, evaluate their coupling to applied strain and DC-electric fields, and find evidence of strong interaction between coherent TLS in the sample material. Our approach opens avenues for quantum material spectroscopy to investigate the structure of tunneling defects and to develop low-loss dielectrics that are urgently required for the advancement of superconducting quantum computers.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Resolving the positions of defects in superconducting quantum bits

Solid-state quantum coherent devices are quickly progressing. Superconducting circuits, for instance, have already been used to demonstrate prototype quantum processors comprising a few tens of quantum bits. This development also revealed that a major part of decoherence and energy loss in such devices originates from a bath of parasitic material defects. However, neither the microscopic structure of defects nor the mechanisms by which they emerge during sample fabrication are understood. Here, we present a technique to obtain information on locations of defects relative to the thin film edge of the qubit circuit. Resonance frequencies of defects are tuned by exposing the qubit sample to electric fields generated by electrodes surrounding the chip. By determining the defect's coupling strength to each electrode and comparing it to a simulation of the field distribution, we obtain the probability at which location and at which interface the defect resides. This method is applicable to already existing samples of various qubit types, without further on-chip design changes. It provides a valuable tool for improving the material quality and nano-fabrication procedures towards more coherent quantum circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Electric field spectroscopy of material defects in transmon qubits

Superconducting integrated circuits have demonstrated a tremendous potential to realize integrated quantum computing processors. However, the downside of the solid-state approach is that superconducting qubits suffer strongly from energy dissipation and environmental fluctuations caused by atomic-scale defects in device materials. Further progress towards upscaled quantum processors will require improvements in device fabrication techniques which need to be guided by novel analysis methods to understand and prevent mechanisms of defect formation. Here, we present a new technique to analyse individual defects in superconducting qubits by tuning them with applied electric fields. This provides a new spectroscopy method to extract the defects' energy distribution, electric dipole moments, and coherence times. Moreover, it enables one to distinguish defects residing in Josephson junction tunnel barriers from those at circuit interfaces. We find that defects at circuit interfaces are responsible for about 60% of the dielectric loss in the investigated transmon qubit sample. About 40% of all detected defects are contained in the tunnel barriers of the large-area parasitic Josephson junctions that occur collaterally in shadow evaporation, and only about 3% are identified as strongly coupled defects which presumably reside in the small-area qubit tunnel junctions. The demonstrated technique provides a valuable tool to assess the decoherence sources related to circuit interfaces and to tunnel junctions that is readily applicable to standard qubit samples.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Towards understanding two-level-systems in amorphous solids -- Insights from quantum circuits

Amorphous solids show surprisingly universal behaviour at low temperatures. The prevailing wisdom is that this can be explained by the existence of two-state defects within the material. The so-called standard tunneling model has become the established framework to explain these results, yet it still leaves the central question essentially unanswered -- what are these two-level defects? This question has recently taken on a new urgency with the rise of superconducting circuits in quantum computing, circuit quantum electrodynamics, magnetometry, electrometry and metrology. Superconducting circuits made from aluminium or niobium are fundamentally limited by losses due to two-level defects within the amorphous oxide layers encasing them. On the other hand, these circuits also provide a novel and effective method for studying the very defects which limit their operation. We can now go beyond ensemble measurements and probe individual defects -- observing the quantum nature of their dynamics and studying their formation, their behaviour as a function of applied field, strain, temperature and other properties. This article reviews the plethora of recent experimental results in this area and discusses the various theoretical models which have been used to describe the observations. In doing so, it summarises the current approaches to solving this fundamentally important problem in solid-state physics.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Dynamical Decoupling of Quantum Two-Level Systems by Coherent Multiple Landau-Zener Transitions

Increasing and stabilizing the coherence of superconducting quantum circuits and resonators is of utmost importance for various technologies ranging from quantum information processors to highly sensitive detectors of low-temperature radiation in astrophysics. A major source of noise in such devices is a bath of quantum two-level systems (TLSs) with broad distribution of energies, existing in disordered dielectrics and on surfaces. Here we study the dielectric loss of superconducting resonators in the presence of a periodic electric bias field, which sweeps near-resonant TLSs in and out of resonance with the resonator, resulting in a periodic pattern of Landau-Zener transitions. We show that at high sweep rates compared to the TLS relaxation rate, the coherent evolution of the TLS over multiple transitions yields a significant reduction in the dielectric loss relative to the intrinsic value. This behavior is observed both in the classical high-power regime and in the quantum single-photon regime, possibly suggesting a viable technique to dynamically decouple TLSs from a qubit.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2019

Correlating decoherence in transmon qubits: Low frequency noise by single fluctuators

We report on long-term measurements of a highly coherent, non-tunable superconducting transmon qubit, revealing low-frequency burst noise in coherence times and qubit transition frequency. We achieve this through a simultaneous measurement of the qubit's relaxation and dephasing rate as well as its resonance frequency. The analysis of correlations between these parameters yields information about the microscopic origin of the intrinsic decoherence mechanisms in Josephson qubits. Our results are consistent with a small number of microscopic two-level systems located at the edges of the superconducting film, which is further confirmed by a spectral noise analysis.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Probing individual tunneling fluctuators with coherently controlled tunneling systems

Josephson junctions made from aluminium and its oxide are the most commonly used functional elements for superconducting circuits and qubits. It is generally known that the disordered thin-film AlOx contains atomic tunneling systems. Coherent tunneling systems may couple strongly to a qubit via their electric dipole moment, giving rise to spectral level repulsion. In addition, slowly fluctuating tunneling systems are observable when they are located close to coherent ones and distort their potentials. This interaction causes telegraphic switching of the coherent tunneling systems' energy splitting. Here, we measure such switching induced by individual fluctuators on time scales from hours to minutes using a superconducting qubit as a detector. Moreover, we extend the range of measurable switching times to millisecond scales by employing a highly sensitive single-photon qubit swap spectroscopy and statistical analysis of the measured qubit states.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Transmission-line resonators for the study of individual two-level tunneling systems

Parasitic two-level tunneling systems (TLS) emerge in amorphous dielectrics and constitute a serious nuisance for various microfabricated devices, where they act as a source of noise and decoherence. Here, we demonstrate a new test bed for the study of TLS in various materials which provides access to properties of individual TLS as well as their ensemble response. We terminate a superconducting transmission-line resonator with a capacitor that hosts TLS in its dielectric. By tuning TLS via applied mechanical strain, we observe the signatures of individual TLS strongly coupled to the resonator in its transmission characteristics and extract the coupling components of their dipole moments and energy relaxation rates. The strong and well-defined coupling to the TLS bath results in pronounced resonator frequency fluctuations and excess phase noise, through which we can study TLS ensemble effects such as spectral diffusion, and probe theoretical models of TLS interaction.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Electronic Decoherence of Two-Level Systems in a Josephson Junction

The sensitivity of superconducting qubits allows for spectroscopy and coherence measurements on individual two-level systems present in the disordered tunnel barrier of an $\mathrm{Al/AlO_x/Al}$ Josephson junction. We report experimental evidence for the decoherence of two-level systems by Bogoliubov quasiparticles leaking into the insulating $\mathrm{AlO_x}$ barrier. We control the density of quasiparticles in the junction electrodes either by the sample temperature or by injecting them using an on-chip dc-SQUID driven to its resistive state. The decoherence rates were measured by observing the two-level system's quantum state evolving under application of resonant microwave pulses and were found to increase linearly with quasiparticle density, in agreement with theory. This interaction with electronic states provides a noise and decoherence mechanism that is relevant for various microfabricated devices such as qubits, single-electron transistors, and field-effect transistors. The presented experiments also offer a possibility to determine the location of the probed two-level systems across the tunnel barrier, providing clues about the fabrication step in which they emerge.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗