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Cryogenic growth of aluminum: Structural morphology, optical properties, superconductivity, and microwave dielectric loss

Wilson J. Yánez-Parreño1, Teun A. J. van Schijndel1, Anthony P. McFadden2, Kaixuan Ji2,3, Susheng Tan4,5, Yu Wu1, Sergey Frolov6, Stefan Zollner7, Raymond W. Simmonds2 et al.

Christopher J. Palmstrøm1,8,*

  • *Contact author: cjpalm@ucsb.edu
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Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 044801 – Published 13 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7kzr-571v

Abstract

We explore the molecular beam epitaxy synthesis of superconducting aluminum thin films grown on c-plane sapphire substrates at cryogenic temperatures of 6 K and compare their behavior with films synthesized at room temperature. We demonstrate that cryogenic growth increases structural disorder, producing crystalline grains that modify the optical, electrical, and superconducting properties of aluminum. We observe that cryogenic deposition changes the color of aluminum from fully reflective to yellow and correlate the pseudodielectric function and reflectance with structural changes in the film. We find that smaller grain sizes enhance the superconductivity of aluminum, increasing its critical temperature and critical field. We then estimate the superconducting gap and coherence length of Cooper pairs in aluminum in the presence of disorder. Finally, we fabricate superconducting microwave resonators on these films and find that, independently of the growth temperature, the system is dominated by two-level system loss with similar quality factors in the high- and low-power regimes. We further measure a higher kinetic inductance in the cryogenically grown films.

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Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 044801– Published 13 April, 2026
  • Received 27 October 2025
  • Accepted 18 March 2026
Article part of CHORUS
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