Nature Communications (Jul 2024)
A stress-induced source of phonon bursts and quasiparticle poisoning
- Robin Anthony-Petersen,
- Andreas Biekert,
- Raymond Bunker,
- Clarence L. Chang,
- Yen-Yung Chang,
- Luke Chaplinsky,
- Eleanor Fascione,
- Caleb W. Fink,
- Maurice Garcia-Sciveres,
- Richard Germond,
- Wei Guo,
- Scott A. Hertel,
- Ziqing Hong,
- Noah Kurinsky,
- Xinran Li,
- Junsong Lin,
- Marharyta Lisovenko,
- Rupak Mahapatra,
- Adam Mayer,
- Daniel N. McKinsey,
- Siddhant Mehrotra,
- Nader Mirabolfathi,
- Brian Neblosky,
- William A. Page,
- Pratyush K. Patel,
- Bjoern Penning,
- H. Douglas Pinckney,
- Mark Platt,
- Matt Pyle,
- Maggie Reed,
- Roger K. Romani,
- Hadley Santana Queiroz,
- Bernard Sadoulet,
- Bruno Serfass,
- Ryan Smith,
- Peter Sorensen,
- Burkhant Suerfu,
- Aritoki Suzuki,
- Ryan Underwood,
- Vetri Velan,
- Gensheng Wang,
- Yue Wang,
- Samuel L. Watkins,
- Michael R. Williams,
- Volodymyr Yefremenko,
- Jianjie Zhang
Affiliations
- Robin Anthony-Petersen
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Andreas Biekert
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Raymond Bunker
- Physics, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Clarence L. Chang
- High Energy Physics, Argonne National Laboratory
- Yen-Yung Chang
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Luke Chaplinsky
- Physics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Eleanor Fascione
- Physics, Queen’s University
- Caleb W. Fink
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Maurice Garcia-Sciveres
- Physics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Richard Germond
- Physics, Queen’s University
- Wei Guo
- Mechanical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University
- Scott A. Hertel
- Physics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Ziqing Hong
- Physics, University of Toronto
- Noah Kurinsky
- Physics, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- Xinran Li
- Physics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Junsong Lin
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Marharyta Lisovenko
- High Energy Physics, Argonne National Laboratory
- Rupak Mahapatra
- Physics, Texas A&M University
- Adam Mayer
- Physics, TRIUMF
- Daniel N. McKinsey
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Siddhant Mehrotra
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Nader Mirabolfathi
- Physics, Texas A&M University
- Brian Neblosky
- Physics, Northwestern University
- William A. Page
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Pratyush K. Patel
- Physics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Bjoern Penning
- Physics, University of Zurich
- H. Douglas Pinckney
- Physics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Mark Platt
- Physics, Texas A&M University
- Matt Pyle
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Maggie Reed
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Roger K. Romani
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Hadley Santana Queiroz
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Bernard Sadoulet
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Bruno Serfass
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Ryan Smith
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Peter Sorensen
- Physics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Burkhant Suerfu
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Aritoki Suzuki
- Physics, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Ryan Underwood
- Physics, Queen’s University
- Vetri Velan
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Gensheng Wang
- High Energy Physics, Argonne National Laboratory
- Yue Wang
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Samuel L. Watkins
- Physics, University of California, Berkeley
- Michael R. Williams
- Physics, University of Michigan
- Volodymyr Yefremenko
- High Energy Physics, Argonne National Laboratory
- Jianjie Zhang
- High Energy Physics, Argonne National Laboratory
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50173-8
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 15,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 8
Abstract
Abstract The performance of superconducting qubits is degraded by a poorly characterized set of energy sources breaking the Cooper pairs responsible for superconductivity, creating a condition often called “quasiparticle poisoning”. Both superconducting qubits and low threshold dark matter calorimeters have observed excess bursts of quasiparticles or phonons that decrease in rate with time. Here, we show that a silicon crystal glued to its holder exhibits a rate of low-energy phonon events that is more than two orders of magnitude larger than in a functionally identical crystal suspended from its holder in a low-stress state. The excess phonon event rate in the glued crystal decreases with time since cooldown, consistent with a source of phonon bursts which contributes to quasiparticle poisoning in quantum circuits and the low-energy events observed in cryogenic calorimeters. We argue that relaxation of thermally induced stress between the glue and crystal is the source of these events.
