arXiv subjects

Kim Kisslinger

Publications and source records attributed to Kim Kisslinger.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Microwave loss characterization using multi-mode superconducting resonators

Measuring the losses arising from different materials and interfaces is crucial to improving the coherence of superconducting quantum circuits. Although this has been of interest for a long time, current studies can either only provide bounds to those losses, or require several devices for a complete characterization. In this work, we introduce a method to measure the microwave losses of materials and interfaces with a single multi-mode superconducting resonator. We demonstrate a formalism for analyzing the loss sensitivity of multi-mode systems and discuss the design strategies of multi-mode resonators for material loss studies. We present two types of multi-mode superconducting resonators for the study of bulk superconductors: the forky whispering-gallery-mode resonator (FWGMR) and the ellipsoidal cavity. We use these resonators to measure the surface dielectric, conductor, and seam losses of high-purity (5N5) aluminum and aluminum alloy (6061), as well as how they are affected by chemical etching, diamond turning, and thin-film coating. We find that chemical etching and diamond turning reduce both the surface dielectric and conductive losses of high-purity aluminum, but provide no appreciable improvement to the seam. Coating the surfaces of diamond-turned aluminum alloys with e-beam evaporated or sputtered aluminum thin-films significantly reduces all three losses under study. In addition, we study the effect of chemical etching on the surface of high-purity aluminum using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and find that the chemical etching process creates a thinner and more uniform oxide layer, consistent with the observed improvement in the surface dielectric loss.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Wafer-scale growth of two-dimensional, phase-pure InSe

Two-dimensional (2D) indium monoselenide (InSe) has attracted significant attention as a III-VI two-dimensional semiconductor (2D) with a combination of favorable attributes from III-V semiconductors as well as van der Waals 2D transition metal dichalcogenides. Nevertheless, the large-area synthesis of phase-pure 2D InSe remains unattained due to the complexity of the binary In-Se system and the difficulties in promoting lateral growth. Here, we report the first polymorph-selective synthesis of epitaxial 2D InSe by metal-organic chemical deposition (MOCVD) over 2 inch diameter sapphire wafers. We achieve thickness-controlled, layer-by-layer epitaxial growth of InSe on c-plane sapphire via dynamic pulse control of Se/In flux ratio. The layer-by-layer growth allows thickness control over wafer scale with tunable optical properties comparable to bulk crystals. Finally, the gate-tunable electrical transport suggests that MOCVD-grown InSe could be a potential channel material for back-end-of-line integration in logic transistors with field-effect mobility comparable to single-crystalline flakes.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Chemical profiles of the oxides on tantalum in state of the art superconducting circuits

Over the past decades, superconducting qubits have emerged as one of the leading hardware platforms for realizing a quantum processor. Consequently, researchers have made significant effort to understand the loss channels that limit the coherence times of superconducting qubits. A major source of loss has been attributed to two level systems that are present at the material interfaces. We recently showed that replacing the metal in the capacitor of a transmon with tantalum yields record relaxation and coherence times for superconducting qubits, motivating a detailed study of the tantalum surface. In this work, we study the chemical profile of the surface of tantalum films grown on c-plane sapphire using variable energy X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (VEXPS). We identify the different oxidation states of tantalum that are present in the native oxide resulting from exposure to air, and we measure their distribution through the depth of the film. Furthermore, we show how the volume and depth distribution of these tantalum oxidation states can be altered by various chemical treatments. By correlating these measurements with detailed measurements of quantum devices, we can improve our understanding of the microscopic device losses.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

The study of contact properties in edge-contacted graphene-aluminum Josephson junctions

Transparent contact interfaces in superconductor-graphene hybrid systems are critical for realizing superconducting quantum applications. Here, we examine the effect of the edge-contact fabrication process on the transparency of the superconducting aluminum-graphene junction. We show significant improvement in the transparency of our superconductor-graphene junctions by promoting the chemical component of the edge contact etch process. Our results compare favorably with state-of-the-art graphene Josephson junctions. The findings of our study contribute to advancing the fabrication knowledge of edge-contacted superconductor-graphene junctions.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2021

Direct Opto-Electronic Imaging of 2D Semiconductor - 3D Metal Buried Interfaces

The semiconductor-metal junction is one of the most critical factors for high performance electronic devices. In two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor devices, minimizing the voltage drop at this junction is particularly challenging and important. Despite numerous studies concerning contact resistance in 2D semiconductors, the exact nature of the buried interface under a three-dimensional (3D) metal remains unclear. Herein, we report the direct measurement of electrical and optical responses of 2D semiconductor-metal buried interfaces using a recently developed metal-assisted transfer technique to expose the buried interface which is then directly investigated using scanning probe techniques. We characterize the spatially varying electronic and optical properties of this buried interface with < 20 nm resolution. To be specific, potential, conductance and photoluminescence at the buried metal/MoS$_2$ interface are correlated as a function of a variety of metal deposition conditions as well as the type of metal contacts. We observe that direct evaporation of Au on MoS$_2$ induces a large strain of ~5% in the MoS$_2$ which, coupled with charge transfer, leads to degenerate doping of the MoS$_2$ underneath the contact. These factors lead to improvement of contact resistance to record values of 138 kohm-um, as measured using local conductance probes. This approach was adopted to characterize MoS$_2$-In/Au alloy interfaces, demonstrating contact resistance as low as 63 kohm-um. Our results highlight that the MoS$_2$/Metal interface is sensitive to device fabrication methods, and provides a universal strategy to characterize buried contact interfaces involving 2D semiconductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Approaching the Practical Conductivity Limits of Aerosol Jet Printed Silver

Previous efforts to directly write conductive metals have been narrowly focused on nanoparticle ink suspensions that require aggressive sintering (>200 °C) and result in low-density, small-grained agglomerates with electrical conductivities <25% of bulk metal. Here, we demonstrate aerosol jet printing of a reactive ink solution and characterize high-density (93%) printed silver traces having near-bulk conductivity and grain sizes greater than the electron mean free path, while only requiring a low-temperature (80 °C) treatment. We have developed a predictive electronic transport model which correlates the microstructure to the measured conductivity and identifies a strategy to approach the practical conductivity limit for printed metals. Our analysis of how grain boundaries and tortuosity contribute to electrical resistivity provides insight into the basic materials science that governs how an ink formulator or process developer might approach improving the conductivity. Transmission line measurements validate that electrical properties are preserved up to 20 GHz, which demonstrates the utility of this technique for printed RF components. This work reveals a new method of producing robust printed electronics that retain the advantages of rapid prototyping and three-dimensional fabrication while achieving the performance necessary for success within the aerospace and communications industries.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Emergent of the flat band and superstructures in the VSe2 / Bi2Se3 system

Dispersionless flat bands are proposed to be a fundamental ingredient to achieve the various sought after quantum states of matter including high-temperature superconductivity1-4 and fractional quantum Hall effect5-6. Materials with such peculiar electronic states, however, are very rare and often exhibit very complex band structures. Here, we report on the emergence of a flat band with a possible insulating ground state in the sub-monolayer VSe2 / Bi2Se3 heterostructure by means of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy. The flat band is dispersionless along the kll and kz momenta, filling the entire Brillouin zone, and it exhibits a complex circular dichroism signal reversing the sign at several points of the Brillouin zone. These properties together with the presence of a Moiré patterns in VSe2 suggest that the flat band is not a trivial disorder or confinement effect and could even be topologically non-trivial. Another intriguing finding is that the flat band does not modify the Dirac cone of Bi2Se3 around the Dirac point. Furthermore, we found that the flat band and the Dirac surface states of Bi2Se3 have opposite energy shifts with electron doping. This opens a novel way of controlling the spin texture of photocurrents as well as the transport properties of the heterostructure. These features make this flat band remarkably distinguishable from previous findings and our methodology can be applied to other systems opening a promising pathway to realize strongly correlated quantum effects in topological materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Applying configurational complexity to the 2D Ruddlesden-Popper crystal structure

The 2D layered Ruddlesden-Popper crystal structure can host a broad range of functionally important behaviors. Here we establish extraordinary configurational disorder in a two dimensional layered Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) structure using entropy stabilization assisted synthesis. A protype A2CuO4 RP cuprate oxide with five components (La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu) on the A-site sublattice is designed and fabricated into epitaxial single crystal films using pulsed laser deposition. By comparing (La0.2Pr0.2Nd0.2Sm0.2Eu0.2)2CuO4 crystals grown under identical conditions but different substrates, it is found that heteroepitaxial strain plays an important role in crystal phase formation. When grown on a near lattice matched substrate, the high entropy oxide film features a T'-type RP structure with uniform A-site cation mixing and square-planar CuO4 units, however, growing under strong compressive strain results in a single crystal non-RP cubic phase consistent with a CuX2O4 spinel structure. These observations are made with a range of combined characterizations using X-ray diffraction, atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements. Designing configurational complexity and moving between 2D layered RP and 3D cubic crystal structures in this class of cuprate materials opens many opportunities for new design strategies related to magnetoresistance, unconventional superconductivity, ferroelectricity, catalysis, and ion transport.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Microscopic Relaxation Channels in Materials for Superconducting Qubits

Despite mounting evidence that materials imperfections are a major obstacle to practical applications of superconducting qubits, connections between microscopic material properties and qubit coherence are poorly understood. Here, we perform measurements of transmon qubit relaxation times $T_1$ in parallel with spectroscopy and microscopy of the thin polycrystalline niobium films used in qubit fabrication. By comparing results for films deposited using three techniques, we reveal correlations between $T_1$ and grain size, enhanced oxygen diffusion along grain boundaries, and the concentration of suboxides near the surface. Physical mechanisms connect these microscopic properties to residual surface resistance and $T_1$ through losses arising from the grain boundaries and from defects in the suboxides. Further, experiments show that the residual resistance ratio can be used as a figure of merit for qubit lifetime. This comprehensive approach to understanding qubit decoherence charts a pathway for materials-driven improvements of superconducting qubit performance.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2017

Cathodoluminescence as an Effective Probe of Carrier Transport and Deep Level Defects in Droop-Mitigating InGaN/GaN Quantum Well Heterostructures

Commercial InGaN/GaN light emitting diode heterostructures continue to suffer from efficiency droop at high current densities. Droop mitigation strategies target Auger recombination and typically require structural and/or compositional changes within the multi-quantum well active region. However, these modifications are often accompanied by a corresponding degradation in material quality that decreases the expected gains in high-current external quantum efficiency. We study origins of these efficiency losses by correlating chip-level quantum efficiency measurements with structural and optical properties obtained using a combination of electron microscopy tools. The drop in quantum efficiency is not found to be correlated with quantum well (QW) width fluctuations. Rather, we show direct correlation between active region design, deep level defects, and delayed electron beam induced cathodoluminescence (CL) with characteristic rise time constants on the order of tens of seconds. We propose a model in which the electron beam fills deep level defect states and simultaneously drives reduction of the built-in field within the multi-quantum well active region, resulting in a delay in accumulation of carrier populations within the QWs. The CL measurements yield fundamental insights into carrier transport phenomena, efficiency-reducing defects, and quantum well band structure that are important in guiding future heterostructure process development.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Generation of Ensembles of Individually Resolvable Nitrogen Vacancies Using Nanometer-Scale Apertures in Ultrahigh-Aspect Ratio Planar Implantation Masks

A central challenge in developing magnetically coupled quantum registers in diamond is the fabrication of nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers with localization below ~20 nm to enable fast dipolar interaction compared to the NV decoherence rate. Here, we demonstrate the targeted, high throughput formation of NV centers using masks with a thickness of 270 nm and feature sizes down to ~1 nm. Super-resolution imaging resolves NVs with a full-width maximum distribution of $26\pm7$ nm and a distribution of NV-NV separations of $16\pm5$ nm.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

Evolution Process of Wurtzite ZnO Films on Cubic MgO (001) Substrates: a Structural, Optical and Electronic Investigation of the Misfit Structures

The interface between hexagonal ZnO films and cubic MgO (001) substrates, fabricated through molecular beam epitaxy, are thoroughly investigated. X-ray diffraction and (scanning) transmission electron microscopy reveal that, at the substrate temperature above 200 degree C, the growth follows the single [0001] direction; while at the substrate below 150 degree C, the growth is initially along [0001] and then mainly changes to [0-332] variants beyond the thickness of about 10 nm. Interestingly, a double-domain feature with a rotational angle of 30 degree appears for the growth along [0001] regardless of the growth temperature, experimentally demonstrated the theoretical predictions for occurrence of double rotational domains in such a heteroepitaxy [Grundmann et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 146102 (2010)]. It is also found that, the optical transmissivity of the ZnO film is greatly influenced by the mutation of growth directions, stimulated by the bond-length modulations, as further determined by X-ray absorption Spectra (XAS) at Zn K edge. The XAS results also show the evolution of 4pxy and 4pz states in the conduction band as the growth temperature increases. The results obtained from this work can hopefully promote the applications of ZnO in advanced optoelectronics for which its integration with other materials of different phases is desirable.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗