Loss Mechanisms and Quasiparticle Dynamics in Superconducting Microwave Resonators Made of Thin-Film Granular Aluminum

Superconducting high kinetic inductance elements constitute a valuable resource for quantum circuit design and millimeter-wave detection. Granular aluminum (grAl) in the superconducting regime is a particularly interesting material since it has already shown a kinetic inductance in the range of nH/□ and its deposition is compatible with conventional Al/AlOx/Al Josephson junction fabrication. We characterize microwave resonators fabricated from grAl with a room temperature resistivity of 4×10^{3}  μΩ cm, which is a factor of 3 below the superconductor to insulator transition, showing a kinetic inductance fraction close to unity. The measured internal quality factors are on the order of Q_{i}=10^{5} in the single photon regime, and we demonstrate that nonequilibrium quasiparticles (QPs) constitute the dominant loss mechanism. We extract QP relaxation times in the range of 1 s and we observe QP bursts every ∼20  s. The current level of coherence of grAl resonators makes them attractive for integration in quantum devices, while it also evidences the need to reduce the density of nonequilibrium QPs.