2025/02/25 by Oscar W. Kennedy, Kennedy, Oscar W., Jared H. Cole +3 · 2 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Electrical Measurement Techniques #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.18304
openalex publication_date 2025/02/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Building more powerful quantum computers requires manufacturing processes with tight tolerances. To improve the tolerances on Josephson junctions, techniques to fine tune their properties after fabrication have been developed. Understanding how tuning techniques may physically modify the tunnel barrier of a Josephson junction is important and will enable these techniques to be optimised. We develop a model of junction tuning based on depinning theory to interpret a phase diagram of tuning rate. We extract the dependence on temperature, time-varying voltages and oscillation frequency. Using depinning theory we are able to show both why time-varying annealing potentials result in controlled junction tuning and how such protocols can be optimised. We examine how tuning changes the electrical breakdown of barriers and discrepancies between modeled and measured higher energy levels of transmon qubits.