Improving the Quality Factor of Aluminum 3D Cavities | Qiskit Seminar Series with Marina Kudra

Speaker: Marina Kudra Host: Zlatko Minev, Ph.D. Title: Improving the Quality Factor of Aluminum 3D Cavities Abstract: I will present a comprehensive study of internal quality factors in superconducting stub-geometry three-dimensional cavities made of aluminum. I will discuss in detail the treatments we use, wet etching, annealing, and electrochemical polishing to improve the as machined quality factor. A total of 17 cavities of different purity, resonance frequency, and size were studied. Our treatment results in reproducible cavities, with 10 of them showing internal quality factors above 80 million at a power corresponding to an average of a single photon in the cavity. The summary of these findings is presented in Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 070601 (2020). These cavities, when coupled to ancilla qubits, are a great system to store quantum information. If there is enough time and interest, I can also talk about our current effort to create an arbitrary state in the cavity using displacements and selective number-dependent arbitrary phase (SNAP) gates. -- The Quantum Computing Seminar Series is a deep dive into various academic and research topics within the quantum community. It will feature community members and leaders every Friday, 12 PM EDT.