Near-Field Terahertz Nanoscopy of Coplanar Microwave Resonators

Abstract: Superconducting quantum circuits are one of the leading quantum computing platforms. To advance superconducting quantum computing to a point of practical importance, it is critical to identify and address material imperfections that lead to decoherence. Here, we use terahertz Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy (SNOM) to probe the local dielectric properties and carrier concentrations of wet-etched aluminum resonators on silicon, one of the most characteristic components of the superconducting quantum processors. Using a recently developed vector calibration technique, we extract the THz permittivity from spectroscopy in proximity to the microwave feedline. Fitting the extracted permittivity to the Drude model, we find that silicon in the etched channel has a carrier concentration greater than buffer oxide etched silicon and we explore post-processing methods to reduce the carrier concentrations. Our results show that near-field THz investigations can be applied to quantitatively evaluate and identify potential loss channels in quantum devices.