Strain-spectroscopy of strongly interacting defects in superconducting qubits

The proper functioning of some micro-fabricated novel quantum devices, such as superconducting resonators and qubits, is severely affected by the presence of parasitic structural material defects known as tunneling two-level-systems (TLS). Recent experiments have reported unambiguous evidence of the strong interaction between individual (coherent) TLS using strain-assisted spectroscopy. This work provides an alternative and simple theoretical insight that illustrates how to obtain the spectral response of such strongly interacting defects residing inside the amorphous tunnel barrier of a qubit’s Josephson junction. Moreover, the corresponding spectral signatures obtained here may serve to quickly and efficiently elucidate the actual state of these interacting TLS in experiments based on strain or electric-field spectroscopy.