Precision measurement of the microwave dielectric loss of sapphire in the quantum regime with parts-per-billion sensitivity

Dielectric loss is known to limit state-of-the-art superconducting qubit lifetimes. Recent experiments imply upper bounds on bulk dielectric loss tangents on the order of $100$ parts-per-billion, but because these inferences are drawn from fully fabricated devices with many loss channels, they do not definitively implicate or exonerate the dielectric. To resolve this ambiguity, we have devised a measurement method capable of separating and resolving bulk dielectric loss with a sensitivity at the level of $5$ parts per billion. The method, which we call the dielectric dipper, involves the in-situ insertion of a dielectric sample into a high-quality microwave cavity mode. Smoothly varying the sample's participation in the cavity mode enables a differential measurement of the sample's dielectric loss tangent. The dielectric dipper can probe the low-power behavior of dielectrics at cryogenic temperatures, and does so without the need for any lithographic process, enabling controlled comparisons of substrate materials and processing techniques. We demonstrate the method with measurements of EFG sapphire, from which we infer a bulk loss tangent of $62(7) \times 10^{-9}$ and a substrate-air interface loss tangent of $12(2) \times 10^{-4}$. For a typical transmon, this bulk loss tangent would limit device quality factors to less than $20$ million, suggesting that bulk loss is likely the dominant loss mechanism in the longest-lived transmons on sapphire. We also demonstrate this method on HEMEX sapphire and bound its bulk loss tangent to be less than $15(5) \times 10^{-9}$. As this bound is about 3 times smaller than the bulk loss tangent of EFG sapphire, use of HEMEX sapphire as a substrate would lift the bulk dielectric coherence limit of a typical transmon qubit to several milliseconds.