Epitaxial α-Ta (110) film on a-plane sapphire substrate for superconducting qubits on wafer scale

Realization of practical superconducting quantum computing requires many qubits of long coherence time. Compared to the commonly used Ta deposited on c-plane sapphire, which occasionally form α-Ta (111) grains and e̱ṯa̱-tantalum grains, high quality Ta (110) film can grow epitaxial on a-plane sapphire because of the atomic relationships at the interface. Well-ordered α-Ta (110) film on wafer-scale a-plane sapphire has been prepared. The film exhibits high residual resistance ratio. Transmon qubits fabricated using these film shows relaxation times exceeding 150 μs. The results suggest Ta film on a-plane sapphire is a promising choice for long coherence time qubit on wafer scale.