Can slow recombination in ordered superconductors explain the excess quasiparticle population?

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03217v1
• Date: Thu, 03 Jul 2025 23:13:37 GMT
• Title: Can slow recombination in ordered superconductors explain the excess quasiparticle population?
• Authors: Eva Gurra, Douglas A. Bennett, Shannon M. Duff, Michael R. Vissers, Joel N. Ullom,
• Abstract summary: An excess density of quasiparticles is widely observed in superconducting films.<n>This excess causes performance degradation in a variety of superconducting devices, including decoherence in qubits.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: An excess density of quasiparticles is widely observed in superconducting films. This excess causes performance degradation in a variety of superconducting devices, including decoherence in qubits. In this Letter, we evaluate the hypothesis of [1] that the quasiparticle excess is caused by anomalously slow recombination at low quasiparticle densities due to localization in sub-gap states. We probe the density of states in aluminum and niobium films using current-voltage measurements of tunnel junctions and extract upper bounds on the energy scales of the sub-gap states and gap smearing. With these parameters, we evaluate the recombination times predicted by [1] and find that slow recombination is not predicted to occur at observed quasiparticle densities in aluminumand niobium-based superconducting devices. These results suggest that the quasiparticle excess in ordered superconductors is primarily due to non-thermal sources of quasiparticle generation and not slow recombination.

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