A Stress Induced Source of Phonon Bursts and Quasiparticle Poisoning

Robin Anthony-Petersen; Andreas Biekert; Raymond Bunker; Clarence L. Chang; Yen-Yung Chang; Luke Chaplinsky; Eleanor Fascione; Caleb W. Fink; Maurice Garcia-Sciveres; Richard Germond; Wei Guo; Scott A. Hertel; Ziqing Hong; Noah Kurinsky; Xinran Li; Junsong Lin; Marharyta Lisovenko; Rupak Mahapatra; Adam Mayer; Daniel N. McKinsey; Siddhant Mehrotra; Nader Mirabolfathi; Brian Neblosky; William A. Page; Pratyush K. Patel; Bjoern Penning; H. Douglas Pinckney; Mark Platt; Matt Pyle; Maggie Reed; Roger K. Romani; Hadley Santana Queiroz; Bernard Sadoulet; Bruno Serfass; Ryan Smith; Peter F. Sorensen; Burkhant Suerfu; Aritoki Suzuki; Ryan Underwood; Vetri Velan; Gensheng Wang; Yue Wang; Samuel L. Watkins; Michael R. Williams; Volodymyr Yefremenko; Jianjie Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-50173-8

Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2208.02790

A Stress Induced Source of Phonon Bursts and Quasiparticle Poisoning

View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The performance of superconducting qubits is degraded by a poorly characterized set of energy sources breaking the Cooper pairs responsible for superconductivity, creating a condition often called ``quasiparticle poisoning". Both superconducting qubits and low threshold dark matter calorimeters have observed excess bursts of quasiparticles or phonons that decrease in rate with time. Here, we show that a silicon crystal glued to its holder exhibits a rate of low-energy phonon events that is more than two orders of magnitude larger than in a functionally identical crystal suspended from its holder in a low-stress state. The excess phonon event rate in the glued crystal decreases with time since cooldown, consistent with a source of phonon bursts which contributes to quasiparticle poisoning in quantum circuits and the low-energy events observed in cryogenic calorimeters. We argue that relaxation of thermally induced stress between the glue and crystal is the source of these events.

Explore related subjects

physics.ins-det cond-mat.supr-con

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeX RIS

Robin Anthony-Petersen, Andreas Biekert, Raymond Bunker, Clarence L. Chang, Yen-Yung Chang, Luke Chaplinsky, Eleanor Fascione, Caleb W. Fink, Maurice Garcia-Sciveres, Richard Germond, Wei Guo, Scott A. Hertel, Ziqing Hong, Noah Kurinsky, Xinran Li, Junsong Lin, Marharyta Lisovenko, Rupak Mahapatra, Adam Mayer, Daniel N. McKinsey, Siddhant Mehrotra, Nader Mirabolfathi, Brian Neblosky, William A. Page, Pratyush K. Patel, Bjoern Penning, H. Douglas Pinckney, Mark Platt, Matt Pyle, Maggie Reed, Roger K. Romani, Hadley Santana Queiroz, Bernard Sadoulet, Bruno Serfass, Ryan Smith, Peter F. Sorensen, Burkhant Suerfu, Aritoki Suzuki, Ryan Underwood, Vetri Velan, Gensheng Wang, Yue Wang, Samuel L. Watkins, Michael R. Williams, Volodymyr Yefremenko, Jianjie Zhang. 2024-08-14. A Stress Induced Source of Phonon Bursts and Quasiparticle Poisoning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50173-8

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Mortality of ultra-thin LGADs and PiN diodes from high energy deposition

Low Gain Avalanche Diodes are prime candidates for high-resolution timing applications in High Energy Physics, Nuclear science, and several other fields. Operating these devices in high-radiation environments presents various hazards, including the risk of their permanent degradation or destruction caused by effects such as Single Event Burnout. Studies using minimum ionizing particles found a greatly reduced Single Event Burnout risk by operating below a bias voltage corresponding to an average electric field of 12 V/$μ$m - however, as high energy particle colliders produce a wide energy spectrum of radiation, it is crucial to understand this phenomenon and other possible damage mechanisms at energy deposition levels greater than those of minimum ionizing particles. This was achieved by pre-irradiating LGADs and PiN diodes with active thicknesses of 20, 30, and 50 $μ$m up to 1.5 $\times$ 10$^{15}$ $\mathrm{n_{eq}/cm^2}$, and exposing them to beams of protons and heavy ions (C, O, Fe, Au) at the BNL Tandem van de Graaff accelerator. Several mortality categories were observed, defined by different electrical and mechanical damage signatures. This furthers our understanding of permanent radiation damage of silicon devices, crucial towards mitigating Single Event Burnout and other damage mechanisms to safely operate future detectors.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2026

Small but Tubby: A Magnetic Loop Antenna Made from 100 mm Copper Tubing

This paper presents the electrical model, key equations, and practical construction of a small transmitting magnetic loop antenna built from unusually large 100 mm diameter copper tubing. The large conductor surface area and wide-area transitions to the vacuum capacitors were designed to minimize resistive losses. The frequency range from 1.8 MHz to 31 MHz is unusually wide. Frequency, impedance matching, and azimuth are all adjusted automatically by servo motors. Indoor losses originate predominantly from near-field coupling to the environment rather than from the antenna itself. Temperature-rise measurements confirm that the bulk of the dissipated power is absorbed by the environment, not by the antenna components. The conducted H-field measurements demonstrate good agreement between the measured H-field and the theoretical free-space H-field calculated from the antenna geometry and an estimated loop current. The loop current was estimated from the measured antenna bandwidth and the applied transmit power. The antenna was developed for indoor operation where outdoor installation is not possible.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2026

Construction and characterisation of the DarkSide-20k veto silicon photo-multiplier tiles

Silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) are state-of-the-art sensors capable of detecting a single photoelectron under cryogenic conditions, with potentially lower radioactivity than widely used photomultiplier tubes. The DarkSide-20k experiment, designed to perform direct dark matter searches using liquid argon as the target material, employs SiPM technology to detect interactions in the active detector volumes, including the central dual-phase Time Projection Chamber and the Inner and Outer Veto volumes. The vetoes are designed to discriminate against radiogenic neutron and cosmic muon backgrounds associated with the dark matter search. This paper describes the completed production and test protocols for the "Veto Tiles" (called vTiles, arrays of 24 SiPMs integrated on a printed circuit board providing the power distribution and signal amplification); 16 vTiles are grouped into "Veto Photo-Detector Units" to instrument the Inner Veto volume. Each vTile underwent detailed testing at room and cryogenic temperatures, confirming stable operation, high signal-to-noise ratio, and low radioactive contamination, demonstrating the robustness of the proposed design for cryogenic conditions. The final production yield exceeded 87%, surpassing the 80% requirement and corresponding to 1920 Veto Tiles to populate 120 Veto Photo-Detector Units, plus an additional 6% as spares.

physics.ins-det↗