Determination of Low Loss in Isotopically Pure Single Crystal ²⁸Si at Low Temperatures and Single Microwave Photon Energy

Abstract

The low dielectric losses of an isotopically pure single crystal ²⁸Si sample were determined at a temperature of 20 mK and at powers equivalent to that of a single photon. Whispering Gallery Mode (WGM) analysis revealed large Quality Factors of order 2 × 10 ⁶ (dielectric loss ~5 × 10 ⁻⁷) at high powers, degrading to 7 × 10 ⁻⁵ (dielectric loss ~1.4 × 10 ⁻⁶ at single photon energy. A very low-loss narrow line width paramagnetic spin flip transition was detected with extreme sensitivity in ²⁸Si, with very small concentration below 10 ¹⁰ cm ⁻³ (less than 10 parts per trillion) and g-factor of 1.995 ± 0.008. Such determination was only possible due to the low dielectric photonic losses combined with the long lifetime of the spin transition (low magnetic loss), which enhances the magnetic AC susceptibility. Such low photonic loss at single photon energy combined with the narrow line width of the spin ensemble, indicate that single crystal ²⁸Si could be an important crystal for future cavity QED experiments.