Field-Dependent Qubit Flux Noise Simulated from Materials-Specific Disordered Exchange Interactions Between Paramagnetic Adsorbates

TL;DR

This paper presents a first-principles simulation of paramagnetic surface adsorbates on superconducting qubit surfaces, revealing how material-specific disorder and interactions influence flux noise and suggesting electric field tuning as a mitigation strategy.

Contribution

It introduces a parameter-free, materials-specific spin lattice simulation that captures flux noise phenomena in superconducting qubits, linking microscopic disorder to macroscopic noise properties.

Findings

Simulated exchange interactions match the energy range of two-level systems.

Flux noise trends agree with experimental observations.

External electric fields can reduce flux noise by tuning spin interactions.

Abstract

Superconducting quantum devices, from qubits and magnetometers to dark matter detectors, are influenced by magnetic flux noise originating from paramagnetic surface defects and impurities. These spin systems can feature complex dynamics, including a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition, that depend on the lattice, interactions, external fields, and disorder. However, the disorder included in typical models is not materials-specific, diminishing the ability to accurately capture measured flux noise phenomena. We present a first principles-based simulation of a spin lattice consisting of paramagnetic O$_2$ molecules on an Al$_2$O$_3$ surface, a likely flux noise source in superconducting qubits, to elucidate opportunities to mitigate flux noise. We simulate an ensemble of surface adsorbates with disordered orientations and calculate the orientation-dependent exchange couplings using density functional theory. Thus, our spin simulation has no free parameters or assumed functional form of the disorder, and captures correlation in the defect landscape that would appear in real systems. We calculate a range of exchange interactions between electron pairs, with the smallest values, 0.016 meV and -0.023 meV, being in the range required to act as a two-level system and couple to GHz resonators. We calculate the flux noise frequency, temperature, and applied external magnetic field dependence, as well as the susceptibility-flux noise cross-correlation. Calculated trends agree with experiment, demonstrating that a surface harboring paramagnetic adsorbates arranged with materials-specific disorder and interactions captures the various properties of magnetic flux noise observed in superconducting circuits. In addition, we find that an external electric field can tune the spin-spin interaction strength and reduce magnetic flux noise.