Reducing quantum-regime dielectric loss of silicon nitride for superconducting quantum circuits

TL;DR

This study measures and analyzes the dielectric loss of amorphous silicon nitride at quantum levels, revealing that reducing nitrogen-hydrogen impurities significantly decreases loss, which benefits superconducting quantum circuits.

Contribution

It demonstrates that lowering N-H impurity levels in silicon nitride films can drastically reduce dielectric loss in the quantum regime, improving material performance for quantum circuits.

Findings

Dielectric loss tangent $ an heta_0$ correlates with N-H impurities.

Reducing nitrogen content decreases $ an heta_0$ by about 50.

Best films achieve $ an heta_0 hickapprox 3 imes 10^{-5}$.

Abstract

The loss of amorphous hydrogenated silicon nitride (a-SiN$_{x}$:H) is measured at 30 mK and 5 GHz using a superconducting LC resonator down to energies where a single-photon is stored, and analyzed with an independent two-level system (TLS) defect model. Each a-SiN$_{x}$:H film was deposited with different concentrations of hydrogen impurities. We find that quantum-regime dielectric loss tangent $\tan\delta_{0}$ in a-SiN$_{x}$:H is strongly correlated with N-H impurities, including NH$_{2}$. By slightly reducing $x$ we are able to reduce $\tan\delta_0$ by approximately a factor of 50, where the best films show $\tan\delta_0$ $\simeq$ 3 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$.