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Microscopic model of critical current noise in Josephson-junction qubits: Subgap resonances and Andreev bound states

Source: Phys. Rev. B 80, 094515 (2009); doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.80.094515

Published 18 September 2009

KEYWORDS and PACS
Keywords
PACS
  • 74.50.+r
    Superconductor tunneling phenomena; point contacts, weak links, Josephson effects
  • 74.40.+k
    Fluctuations in superconductors
  • YEAR: 2009
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Rogério de Sousa,1 K. Birgitta Whaley,2 Theresa Hecht,3 Jan von Delft,3 and Frank K. Wilhelm4
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8V 4H3
2Department of Chemistry and Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-1460, USA
3Physik Department, CeNS, and ASC, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Theresienstr. 37, D-80333 München, Germany
4Department of Physics and Astronomy and Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue W, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
We propose a microscopic model of critical current noise in Josephson junctions based on individual trapping centers in the tunnel-barrier hybridized with electrons in the superconducting leads. We calculate the noise exactly in the limit of no on-site Coulomb repulsion. Our result reveals a noise spectrum that is dramatically different from the usual Lorentzian assumed in simple models. We show that the noise is dominated by sharp subgap resonances associated to the formation of pairs of Andreev bound states, thus providing a possible explanation for the spurious two-level systems (microresonators) observed in Josephson-junction qubits [R. W. Simmonds et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 077003 (2004).]. Another implication of our model is that each trapping center will contribute a sharp dielectric resonance only in the superconducting phase, providing an effective way to validate our results experimentally. We derive an effective Hamiltonian for a qubit interacting with Andreev bound states, establishing a direct connection between phenomenological models and the microscopic parameters of a Fermionic bath. ©2009 The American Physical Society
History: Received 28 June 2009; published 18 September 2009
Permalink: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v80/e094515

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