Characterization of the Superconducting Microwave Properties of Aluminum Manganese

• Published in: Journal of low temperature physics Vol. 209; no. 5-6; pp. 1158 - 1164
• Main Authors: Lisovenko, M., Pan, Z., Barry, P. S., Cecil, T., Chang, C. L., Hood, J., Li, J., Novosad, V., Wang, G., Yefremenko, V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.12.2022; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Nature
• Subjects: Al-Mn; Aluminum; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Condensed Matter Physics; CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Cooper pairs; Critical temperature; Doping; Heat treatment; Inductance; Low temperature physics; Magnetic Materials; Magnetism; Manganese; Materials selection; MKID; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quality factor; Superconductivity; Quality factor; MKID; Al-Mn
• ISSN: 0022-2291; 1573-7357
• DOI: 10.1007/s10909-022-02845-2

A microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) is a superconducting pair breaking detector that offers a number of unique advantages for realizing large-format arrays of ultra-sensitive detectors, such as inherent multiplexibility and relative ease of fabrication. With the detection threshold being set by the Cooper pair binding energy, and correspondingly, the superconducting critical temperature ( T c ), typically well-understood MKID materials such as aluminum (Al) present a lower limit on the operating frequency. Aluminum manganese (Al-Mn) is a promising candidate material for MKIDs because it can be fabricated with nearly identical processing as pure Al, but allows for control of the T c with varying levels of Mn doping or post-deposition heat treatment. We present initial results from an early characterization of AlMn using a series of lumped-element superconducting microwave resonators, including measurements of T c , internal quality factor, and noise performance over a range of Mn doping.