MSc Seminar - Artificial Burst Excitation and Spatial Measurement in Superconducting Chips

Superconducting quantum circuits are highly susceptible to correlated errors caused by high-energy bursts from natural radiation. These bursts generate phonons in the substrate, which in turn create quasiparticles (QPs) across the chip. Their random and infrequent nature makes them difficult to study systematically.

 

We present a platform that generates controlled artificial bursts using NIS junctions and measures their impact with a linear array of MKIDs. The artificial bursts closely resemble natural events, enabling repeatable experiments. Using time-domain measurements, we study phonon-mediated QP dynamics and extract the longitudinal phonon velocity in the substrate.

 

This platform provides a controlled framework for studying phonon-mediated QP dynamics in superconducting circuits.