DOE OSTI · 3017831
Spontaneous generation of athermal phonon bursts within bulk silicon causing excess noise, low energy background events, and quasiparticle poisoning in superconducting sensors
Abstract
Solid state phonon detectors used in the search for dark matter and coherent neutrino nucleus interactions (CE $v$ NS) require excellent energy resolution (eV-scale or below) and low backgrounds. An unknown source of phonon bursts, the low energy excess (LEE), dominates other above-threshold backgrounds and generates excess shot noise from subthreshold bursts. Here, in this paper, we measure these phonon bursts for 12 days after cooldown in two nearly identical 1 cm 2 silicon detectors that differ only in the thickness of their substrate (1 vs 4 mm thick). We find that both the channel-correlated shot noise and near-threshold shared LEE relax with time since cooldown. Additionally, both the correlated shot noise and LEE rates scale linearly with substrate thickness. When combined with previous measurements of other silicon phonon detectors with different substrate geometries and mechanical support strategies, these measurements strongly suggest that the dominant source of both above and below threshold LEE is the bulk substrate. By monitoring the relation between bias power and excess phonon shot noise, we estimate that the energy scale for subthreshold noise events is 0.68 ± 0.38 meV. In our final dataset, we report a world-leading energy resolution of 258.5 ± 0.4 meV in the 1 mm thick detector. Simple calculations suggest that these silicon substrate phonon bursts are likely a significant source of quasiparticle poisoning in superconducting qubits operated in well shielded and vibration free environments.
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Chang, C. L. [Argonne National Laboratory 1 , 9700 S Cass Ave, Lemont, Illinois 60439,; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, The University of Chicago 2 , 5640 S Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637,; Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The University of Chicago, Eckhardt 3 , 5640 S Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637,] (ORCID:0000000263110448), Chang, Y.-Y. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:000000026441980X), Garcia-Sciveres, M. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 5 , 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, California 94720,; International Center for Quantum-Field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP, WPI), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) 6 , Oho 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801,] (ORCID:0000000258004210), Guo, W. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University 7 , 2525 Pottsdamer Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32310,; National High Magnetic Field Laboratory 8 , 1800 E Paul Dirac Dr., Tallahassee, Florida 32310,] (ORCID:0000000294663213), Hertel, S. A. [University of Massachusetts, Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions and Department of Physics 9 , 101 Stockbridge Hall, 80 Campus Center Way, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-9337,] (ORCID:0009000579191923), Li, X. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 5 , 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000331333660), Lin, J. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 5 , 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000299708150), Lisovenko, M. [Argonne National Laboratory 1 , 9700 S Cass Ave, Lemont, Illinois 60439,] (ORCID:0000000229463944), Mahapatra, R. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University 10 , 4242 TAMU, 578 University Dr., College Station, Texas 77843-4242,] (ORCID:0000000302861114), Matava, W. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000299397786), McKinsey, Daniel N. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 5 , 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, California 94720,], Patel, P. K. [University of Massachusetts, Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions and Department of Physics 9 , 101 Stockbridge Hall, 80 Campus Center Way, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-9337,] (ORCID:0000000223302242), Penning, B. [Department of Physics, University of Zurich 11 , Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich,] (ORCID:0000000190209112), Pinckney, H. D. [University of Massachusetts, Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions and Department of Physics 9 , 101 Stockbridge Hall, 80 Campus Center Way, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-9337,] (ORCID:0000000209856070), Platt, M. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University 10 , 4242 TAMU, 578 University Dr., College Station, Texas 77843-4242,], Pyle, M. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000234906754), Qi, Y. [Department of Mechanical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University 7 , 2525 Pottsdamer Street, Tallahassee, Florida 32310,; National High Magnetic Field Laboratory 8 , 1800 E Paul Dirac Dr., Tallahassee, Florida 32310,] (ORCID:0009000887271925), Reed, M. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000196151388), Rydstrom, I. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:000900005969368X), Romani, R. K. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000295561876), Sadoulet, B. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000239460886), Serfass, B. [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000346814109), Sorensen, P. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 5 , 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000172902175), Suerfu, B. [International Center for Quantum-Field Measurement Systems for Studies of the Universe and Particles (QUP, WPI), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) 6 , Oho 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801,] (ORCID:0000000302597392), Velan, V. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 5 , 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000176693235), Wang, G. [Argonne National Laboratory 1 , 9700 S Cass Ave, Lemont, Illinois 60439,] (ORCID:0000000313853806), Wang, Yue [Department of Physics, University of California Berkeley 4 , 366 LeConte Hall 7300, Berkeley, California 94720,; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 5 , 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:0000000218872451), Williams, M. R. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 5 , 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, California 94720,] (ORCID:000000026540436X), Yefremenko, V. G. [Argonne National Laboratory 1 , 9700 S Cass Ave, Lemont, Illinois 60439,]. 2025-12-30. Spontaneous generation of athermal phonon bursts within bulk silicon causing excess noise, low energy background events, and quasiparticle poisoning in superconducting sensors. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0281876
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