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Scalable Architecture for Dark Photon Searches: Superconducting-Qubit Proof of Principle

Runqi Kang1,2, Qingqin Hu1, Xiao Cai3, Wenlong Yu3, Jingwei Zhou1,2,*, Xing Rong1,4,5,†, and Jiangfeng Du4

  • 1Laboratory of Spin Magnetic Resonance, School of Physical Sciences, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Scientific Instrument Development and Application, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
  • 2Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China
  • 3Gusu Laboratory of Materials, Suzhou, China
  • 4State Key Laboratory of Ocean Sensing and School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • 5Institute of Quantum Sensing, Institute of Fundamental and Transdisciplinary Research and Zhejiang Key Laboratory of R&D and Application of Cutting-edge Scientific Instruments, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China

  • *Contact author: zhoujw@ustc.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: xrong@ustc.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 181004 – Published 29 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9p1t-vc9j

Abstract

The dark photon is a well-motivated dark matter candidate that appears in many extensions of the standard model. A fundamental mass-range-sensitivity dilemma is always haunting the dark photon search experiments: resonant haloscopes have excellent sensitivity but are narrowband, while nonresonant haloscopes are broadband but not as sensitive as the resonant ones. A scalable architecture integrating numerous resonant haloscopes would be a desirable solution to this dilemma. However, even the concept of a scalable search remains rarely explored due to the size limitation of conventional haloscopes imposed by the dark photon wavelength. Here, we propose and demonstrate a novel architecture using superconducting qubits as subwavelength haloscope units. By virtue of the scalability of superconducting qubits, it is possible to integrate multiple qubits with different frequencies on a chip-scale device. Furthermore, the frequencies of the qubits can be tuned to extend the search mass range. Thus, our scalable architectures allow for sweepable high-sensitivity dark photon searches at multiple frequencies simultaneously. As a proof-of-principle experiment, we designed and fabricated a three-qubit chip and successfully demonstrated a scalable dark-photon search. Our Letter established constraints on dark photons in the mass range of 15.632–15.638, 15.838–15.845, and 16.463–16.468  μeV, simultaneously, and the constraints are much more stringent than the cosmology constraints. In the future, our Letter can be scaled up to boost the scrutiny of new physics.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 181004– Published 29 October, 2025
  • Received 12 March 2025
  • Revised 2 August 2025
  • Accepted 7 October 2025
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