# Characterizing dielectric properties of ultra-thin films using superconducting coplanar microwave resonators

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a cryogenic microwave resonator technique to measure the dielectric properties of ultra-thin insulating films with nanometer precision, enabling accurate characterization at GHz frequencies.

## Contribution

It presents a novel superconducting coplanar microwave resonator method for dielectric measurement of ultra-thin films, including a conformal mapping technique for wide parameter regimes.

## Key findings

- Successfully measured dielectric constant of various thin films.
- Achieved nanometer-scale thickness sensitivity.
- Demonstrated temperature-dependent dielectric measurement.

## Abstract

We present an experimental approach for cryogenic dielectric measurements on ultra-thin insulating films. Based on a coplanar microwave waveguide design we implement superconducting quarter-wave resonators with inductive coupling, which allows us to determine the real part $\varepsilon_1$ of the dielectric function at GHz frequencies and for sample thicknesses down to a few nm. We perform simulations to optimize resonator coupling and sensitivity, and we demonstrate the possibility to quantify $\varepsilon_1$ with a conformal mapping technique in a wide sample-thickness and $\varepsilon_1$-regime. Experimentally we determine $\varepsilon_1$ for various thin-film samples (photoresist, MgF$_2$, and SiO$_2$) in the thickness regime of nm up to $\mu m$. We find good correspondence with nominative values and we identify the precision of the film thickness as our predominant error source. Additionally we present a temperature-dependent measurement for a SrTiO$_3$ bulk sample, using an in-situ reference method to compensate for the temperature dependence of the superconducting resonator properties.