Vanishing quasiparticle density in a hybrid Al/Cu/Al single-electron transistor

The achievable fidelity of many nanoelectronic devices based on superconducting aluminum is limited by either the density of residual nonequilibrium quasiparticles n_qp or the density of quasiparticle states in the gap, characterized by Dynes parameter γ. We infer upper bounds n_qp<0.033μm^-3 and γ<1.6×10^-7 from transport measurements performed on Al/Cu/Al single-electron transistors, improving previous results by an order of magnitude. Owing to efficient microwave shielding and quasiparticle relaxation, a typical number of quasiparticles in the superconducting leads is zero.