Decoherence in Josephson Qubits from Dielectric Loss
  Dielectric loss from two-level states is shown to be a dominant decoherence source in superconducting quantum bits. Depending on the qubit design, dielectric loss from insulating materials or the tunnel junction can lead to short coherence times. We show that a variety of microwave and qubit measurements are well modeled by loss from resonant absorption of two-level defects. Our results demonstrate that this loss can be significantly reduced by using better dielectrics and fabricating junctions of small area $\lesssim 10 \mu \textrm{m}^2$. With a redesigned phase qubit employing low-loss dielectrics, the energy relaxation rate has been improved by a factor of 20, opening up the possibility of multi-qubit gates and algorithms. 
John M. Martinis, K.B. Cooper, R. McDermott, Matthias Steffen, Markus   Ansmann, K. Osborn, K. Cicak, S. Oh, D.P. Pappas, R....