Determination of Low Loss in Isotopically Pure Single Crystal $^{28}$Si at Low Temperatures and Single Microwave Photon Energy

TL;DR

This study measures the extremely low dielectric and magnetic losses in isotopically pure $^{28}$Si at millikelvin temperatures and single-photon energies, highlighting its potential for quantum electrodynamics applications.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed characterization of low-loss properties and ultra-sensitive spin transitions in $^{28}$Si at single-photon energies, demonstrating its suitability for quantum technologies.

Findings

Quality factors up to 2×10^6 at high power

Detection of ultra-low concentration spin flip transitions

Low dielectric loss and narrow spin linewidths

Abstract

The low dielectric losses of an isotropically pure single crystal $^{28}$Si sample were determined at a temperature of 20 mK and at powers equivalent to that of a single photon. Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) analysis revealed large Quality Factors of order $2\times10^6$ (dielectric loss $\sim 5\times10^{-7}$) at high powers, degrading to $7\times10^5$ (dielectric loss $\sim 1.4\times10^{-6}$) at single photon energy. A very low-loss narrow line width paramagnetic spin flip transition was detected with extreme sensitivity in $^{28}$Si, with very small concentration below $10^{11}$~cm$^{-3}$ (less than 10 parts per trillion) and g-factor of $1.995\pm0.008$. Such determination was only possible due to the low dielectric photonic losses combined with the long lifetime of the spin transition (low magnetic loss), which enhances the magnetic AC susceptibility. Such low photonic loss at single photon energy combined with the narrow line width of the spin ensemble, indicate that single crystal $^{28}$Si could be an important crystal for future cavity QED experiments.