Direct identification of dilute surface spins on Al$_2$O$_3$: Origin of flux noise in quantum circuits

TL;DR

This study identifies dilute surface spins on Al₂O₃ as a key source of flux noise in quantum circuits, using advanced ESR techniques to reveal their nature and origins, which could lead to improved noise mitigation strategies.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel on-chip ESR method to detect and characterize native surface spins on Al₂O₃, linking specific surface species to flux noise in quantum devices.

Findings

Detected three ESR peaks corresponding to surface spins.

Attributed two peaks to atomic hydrogen from water dissociation.

Suggested the third peak is due to molecular oxygen at defect sites.

Abstract

It is universally accepted that noise and decoherence affecting the performance of superconducting quantum circuits are consistent with the presence of spurious two-level systems (TLS). In recent years bulk defects have been generally ruled out as the dominant source, and the search has focused on surfaces and interfaces. Despite a wide range of theoretical models and experimental efforts, the origin of these surface TLS still remains largely unknown, making further mitigation of TLS induced decoherence extremely challenging. Here we use a recently developed on-chip electron spin resonance (ESR) technique that allows us to detect spins with a very low surface coverage. We combine this technique with various surface treatments specifically to reveal the nature of native surface spins on Al$_2$O$_3$ -- the mainstay of almost all solid state quantum devices. On a large number of samples we resolve three ESR peaks with the measured total paramagnetic spin density $n=2.2\times 10^{17}$m$^{-2}$, which matches the density inferred from the flux noise in SQUIDs. We show that two of these peaks originate from physisorbed atomic hydrogen which appears on the surface as a by-product of water dissociation. We suggest that the third peak is due to molecular oxygen on the Al$_2$O$_3$ surface captured at strong Lewis base defect sites, producing charged O$_2^-$. These results provide important information towards the origin of charge and flux noise in quantum circuits. Our findings open up a whole new approach to identification and controlled reduction of paramagnetic sources of noise in solid state quantum devices.