In situ calibration of microwave attenuation and gain using a cryogenic on-chip attenuator
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2602.16889 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 18 Feb 2026] Title:In situ calibration of microwave attenuation and gain using a cryogenic on-chip attenuator Authors:Thomas Descamps, Linus Andersson, Vittorio Buccheri, Simon Sundelin, Mohammed Ali Aamir, Simone Gasparinetti View a PDF of the paper titled In situ calibration of microwave attenuation and gain using a cryogenic on-chip attenuator, by Thomas Descamps and 5 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Accurate in situ calibration of microwave attenuation and amplification-chain noise is essential for superconducting quantum circuits. We demonstrate a compact, self-calibrating cryogenic noise source based on an on-chip chromium attenuator that can be resistively heated with nanowatt-level power and directly integrated into a coaxial microwave line at the mixing-chamber stage. By comparing Johnson-Nyquist noise generated by Joule and microwave heating, measured through the amplification chain, the attenuation of the input line, and hence the gain of the chain, is determined without requiring knowledge of the attenuator temperature. The device exhibits millisecond-scale response times and negligible heating of the cryostat base plate. Using this approach, we determine the gain and added noise of a cryogenic amplification chain over the 4-8 GHz band. Our results provide a simple and accurate method to characterize near-quantum-limited parametric amplifiers used in superconducting-qubit readout. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2602.16889 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2602.16889v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.16889 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Thomas Descamps [view email] [v1] Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:15:03 UTC (3,458 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled In situ calibration of microwave attenuation and gain using a cryogenic on-chip attenuator, by Thomas Descamps and 5 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-02 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)