Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) and other superconducting circuits are limited by intrinsic flux noise with spectral density $1/f^{\alpha }$ with $\alpha <1$ whose origin is believed to be due to spin impurities. Here, we present a theory of flux noise that takes into account the vectorial nature of the coupling of spins to superconducting wires. We present explicit numerical calculations of the flux-noise power (spectral density integrated over all frequencies) for electron impurities and lattice nuclear spins under several different assumptions. The noise power is shown to be dominated by surface electron spins near the wire edges, with bulk lattice nuclear spins contributing $\sim 5\%$ of the noise power in aluminum and niobium wires. We consider the role of electron spin phase transitions, showing that the spin-spin correlation length (describing, e.g., the average size of ferromagnetic spin clusters) greatly impacts the scaling of flux noise with wire geometry. Remarkably, the flux-noise power is exactly equal to zero when the spins are polarized along the flux-vector direction, forming what we call a poloidal state. Flux noise is nonzero for other spin textures, but gets reduced in the presence of correlated ferromagnetic fluctuations between the top and bottom wire surfaces, where the flux vectors are antiparallel. This demonstrates that engineering spin textures and/or intersurface correlation provides a method to reduce flux noise in superconducting devices.

• Received 15 January 2015
• Revised 12 May 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.054502