Researchers from NUST MISIS, MPGU, HSE University, MPEI, and Skoltech have identified magnetic disorder as a primary factor causing phase coherence loss in titanium nitride thin films. This phenomenon is a significant obstacle to the advancement of quantum information processing.
Experimental data indicates that electron-electron interaction accounts for approximately 5% of the effect, while electron-phonon scattering contributes less than 10%. The decoherence rate remains largely independent of temperature, supporting the theory of magnetic scattering.
The study suggests that magnetic defect density increases as film thickness decreases, implying that these scatterers are concentrated near the surface. The findings were published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.
The team is collaborating with industrial partner Scontel to apply these insights to superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. The goal is to enhance detector efficiency and broaden their spectral range in the infrared spectrum.
The project received support from the Russian Science Foundation via grant number 24-72-10105 and the HSE University fundamental research program. Sample preparation was conducted at NUST MISIS under the Priority-2030 program.
