Superinductor-based ultrastrong coupling in a superconducting circuit

Abstract: We present an ultrastrong superinductor-based coupling consisting of a flux qubit galvanically coupled to a resonator. The coupling inductor is fabricated in granular Aluminum, a superinductor material able to provide large surface inductances. Spectroscopy measurements on the qubit-resonator system reveal a Bloch-Siegert shift of \SI{23}{\mega\hertz} and a coupling fraction of $g/\omega_r \simeq 0.13$, entering the perturbative ultrastrong coupling (USC) regime. We estimate the inductance of the coupler independently by low-temperature resistance measurements providing $L_c = (0.74\pm0.14)\,\mathrm{nH}$, which is compatible with $g/\omega \gtrsim 0.1$. Our results show that superinductors are a promising tool to study USC physics in high-coherence circuits using flux qubits with small loop areas and low persistent currents.