Using materials for quasiparticle engineering

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent strategies using material engineering to control and mitigate quasiparticle effects in superconducting devices, enhancing their performance and reliability.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent material-based approaches for quasiparticle management in superconducting technologies.

Findings

Material combinations can trap quasiparticles effectively.

Mitigation techniques reduce quasiparticle generation and impact.

Open questions remain in optimizing material interfaces.

Abstract

The fundamental excitations in superconductors - Bogoliubov quasiparticles - can be either a resource or a liability in superconducting devices: they are what enables photon detection in microwave kinetic inductance detectors, but they are a source of errors in qubits and electron pumps. To improve operation of the latter devices, ways to mitigate quasiparticle effects have been devised; in particular, combining different materials quasiparticles can be trapped where they do no harm and their generation can be impeded. We review recent developments in these mitigation efforts and discuss open questions.