General information
Organisation
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a key player in research, development and innovation in four main areas :
• defence and security,
• nuclear energy (fission and fusion),
• technological research for industry,
• fundamental research in the physical sciences and life sciences.
Drawing on its widely acknowledged expertise, and thanks to its 16000 technicians, engineers, researchers and staff, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners.
The CEA is established in ten centers spread throughout France
Reference
SL-DRF-26-0282
Direction
DRF
Thesis topic details
Category
Technological challenges
Thesis topics
Surface technologies for enhanced superconducting Qubits lifetimes
Contract
Thèse
Job description
Materials imperfections in superconducting quantum circuits—in particular, two-level-system (TLS) defects—are a major source of decoherence, ultimately limiting the performance of qubits. Thus, identifying the microscopic origin of possible TLS defects in these devices and developing strategies to eliminate them is key to superconducting qubit performance improvement. This project proposes an original approach that combines the passivation of the superconductor’s surface with films deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), which inherently have lower densities of TLS defects, and thermal treatments designed to dissolve the initially present native oxides. These passivating layers will be tested on 3D Nb resonators than implemented in 2D resonators and Qubits and tested to measure their coherence time. The project will also perform systematic material studies with complementary characterization techniques in order to correlate improvements in qubit performances with the chemical and crystalline alteration of the surface.
University / doctoral school
Thesis topic location
Site
Saclay
Requester
Position start date
01/01/2026
Person to be contacted by the applicant
KALBOUSSI Yasmine
yasmine.kalboussi@cea.fr
CEA
DRF/IRFU/DACM/LIDC2
0169085116
Tutor / Responsible thesis director
En savoir plus
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-pplpWEAAAAJ&hl=fr&oi=ao