Effect of Josephson junction probing bias on qubit loss

Room-temperature resistance probing of superconducting qubit Josephson junctions (JJs) is a necessity for assessing yield and predicting qubit frequency, as well as for frequency tuning methods. While the development of probing-bias methods (ABAA) for tuning JJ resistance is evidence that larger probing biases (0.8 V-1.0 V for Al/AlOx/Al JJs) can change properties of the barrier, there is not much clarity on the effect that lower-bias resistance measurements might have on qubit performance. In addition, as the superconducting qubit platform is scaled up towards multi-hundred qubit systems and in preparation for future fault tolerant systems with very high qubit count (hundreds of thousands of physical qubits), one has to evaluate probing methods for improved probing throughput. We have tested probing improvements that enable significantly faster throughput and have verified the impact of such probing changes on low temperature qubit performance. Here, we report observations of qubit loss and coherence across different probing techniques and bias values, as well as a comparison to those from unprobed devices. Our findings clarify the relationship between probing techniques and qubit performance, and offer potential solutions for minimizing probing-related impacts.