Investigating surface loss effects in superconducting transmon qubits

Abstract: Superconducting qubits are sensitive to a variety of loss mechanisms including dielectric loss from interfaces. By changing the physical footprint of the qubit it is possible to modulate sensitivity to surface loss. Here we show a systematic study of planar superconducting transmons of differing physical footprints to optimize the qubit design for maximum coherence. We find that qubits with small footprints are limited by surface loss and that qubits with large footprints are limited by other loss mechanisms which are currently not understood.