Enhanced coherence of all-nitride superconducting qubits epitaxially grown on silicon substrate

Abstract

Improving the coherence of superconducting qubits is a fundamental step towards the realization of fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, coherence times of quantum circuits made from conventional aluminium-based Josephson junctions are limited by the presence of microscopic two-level systems in the amorphous aluminum oxide tunnel barriers. Here, we have developed superconducting qubits based on NbN/AlN/NbN epitaxial Josephson junctions on silicon substrates which promise to overcome the drawbacks of qubits based on Al/AlO${}_x$/Al junctions. The all-nitride qubits have great advantages such as chemical stability against oxidation, resulting in fewer two-level fluctuators, feasibility for epitaxial tunnel barriers that reduce energy relaxation and dephasing, and a larger superconducting gap of $\sim$5.2 meV for NbN, compared to $\sim$0.3 meV for aluminium, which suppresses the excitation of quasiparticles. By replacing conventional MgO by a silicon substrate with a TiN buffer layer for epitaxial growth of nitride junctions, we demonstrate a qubit energy relaxation time $T$${}_1$=16.3 $\mu$s and a spin-echo dephasing time $T$${}_2$=21.5 $\mu$s. These significant improvements in quantum coherence are explained by the reduced dielectric loss compared to previously reported NbN-based qubits with MgO substrates ($T$${}_1$$\approx$$T$${}_2$$\approx$0.5 $\mu$s). These results are an important step towards constructing a new platform for superconducting quantum hardware.