Microwave magnon damping in YIG films at millikelvin temperatures

Magnon systems used in quantum devices require low damping if coherence is to be maintained. The ferrimagnetic electrical insulator yttrium iron garnet (YIG) has low magnon damping at room temperature and is a strong candidate to host microwave magnon excitations in future quantum devices. Monocrystalline YIG films are typically grown on gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) substrates. In this work, comparative experiments made on YIG waveguides with and without GGG substrates indicate that the material plays a significant role in increasing the damping at low temperatures. Measurements reveal that damping due to temperature-peak processes is dominant above 1 K. Damping behaviour that we show can be attributed to coupling to two-level fluctuators (TLFs) is observed below 1 K. Upon saturating the TLFs in the substrate-free YIG at 20 mK, linewidths of 1.4 MHz are achievable: lower than those measured at room temperature.