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Superconducting Materials for Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors

The superconducting materials that make up an MKID have a significant effect on its performance. The $T_\textrm{c}$ and normal state resistivity $ρ_\textrm{N}$ of the film determine the penetration depth $λ$ and therefore how much kinetic inductance it has. The ratio of kinetic inductance to total inductance ($α$), the volume of the inductor, and $Q_\textrm{m}$ determines the magnitude of the response to incoming energy. The quasiparticle lifetime $τ_\textrm{qp}$ is the characteristic time during which the MKID's surface impedance is modified by the incoming energy. Many materials have been explored for use in superconducting resonators and MKIDs, but that information is often not published or scattered around the literature. This chapter contains information and references on the work that has been done with thin film lithographed circuits for MKIDs over the last two decades. Note that measured material properties such as the internal loss quality factor $Q_\textrm{i}$ and quasiparticle lifetime $τ_\textrm{qp}$ vary significantly depending on how the MKID superconducting thin film is made and the system they are measured in, so it is best to interpret all stated values as typical but not definitive. Values are omitted in cases when there aren't enough measurements or there is too much disagreement in the literature to estimate a typical value. In order to be as complete as possible some unpublished results from the author's lab are included and can be identified by the lack of a reference. Unless noted all films are polycrystalline or amorphous.