Cavity-QED simulation of a quantum metamaterial with tunable disorder

We explore experimentally a quantum metamaterial based on a superconducting chip with 25 frequency-tunable transmon qubits coupled to a common coplanar resonator. The collective bright and dark modes are probed via the microwave response, i.e., by measuring the transmission amplitude of an external microwave signal. All qubits have individual control and readout lines. Their frequency tunability allows to change the number N of resonantly coupled qubits and also to introduce a disorder in their excitation frequencies with preassigned distributions. While increasing N, we demonstrate the expected N$^{1/2}$ scaling law for the energy gap (Rabi splitting) between bright modes around the cavity frequency. By introducing a controllable disorder and averaging the transmission amplitude over a large number of realizations, we demonstrate a decay of mesoscopic fluctuations which mimics an approach towards the thermodynamic limit. The collective bright states survive in the presence of disorder when the strength of individual qubit coupling to the cavity dominates over the disorder strength

Epitaxial Silver Films Morphology and Optical Properties Evolution over Two Years

Silver and gold are the most commonly used materials in optics and plasmonics. Silver has the lowest optical losses in the visible and near-infrared wavelength range, but it faces a serious problem—degradation over time. It has been repeatedly reported that the optical properties of silver thin films rapidly degrade when exposed to the atmosphere. This phenomenon was described by various mechanisms: rapid silver oxidation, sorption of sulfur or oxygen, formation of silver compounds with chlorine, sulfur, and oxygen. In this work, we systematically studied single-crystalline silver films from 25 to 70 nm thicknesses for almost two years. The surface morphology, crystalline structure and optical characteristics of the silver films were measured using spectroscopic ellipsometry, ultra-high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, and stylus profilometry under standard laboratory conditions. After 19 months, bulk structures appeared on the surface of thin films. These structures are associated with relaxation of internal stresses combined with dewetting. Single-crystalline silver films deposited using the single-crystalline continuous ultra-smooth, low-loss, low-cost (SCULL) technology with a thickness of 35–50 nm demonstrated the best stability in terms of degradation. We have shown that the number of defects (grain boundaries and joints of terraces) is one of the key factors that influence the degradation intensity of silver films