Universal scaling of microwave dissipation in superconducting circuits

Abstract: Improving the coherence of superconducting qubits is essential for advancing quantum technologies. While superconductors are theoretically perfect conductors, they consistently exhibit residual energy dissipation when driven by microwave currents, limiting coherence times. Here, we report a universal scaling between microwave dissipation and the superfluid density, a bulk property of superconductors related to charge carrier density and disorder. Our analysis spans a wide range of superconducting materials and device geometries, from highly disordered amorphous films to ultra-clean systems with record-high quality factors, including resonators, 3D cavities, and transmon qubits. This scaling reveals an intrinsic bulk dissipation channel, independent of surface dielectric losses, that originates from a universal density of nonequilibrium quasiparticles trapped within disorder-induced spatial variations of the superconducting gap. Our findings define a fundamental limit to coherence set by intrinsic material properties and provide a predictive framework for selecting materials and the design of next-generation superconducting quantum circuits.