Amir Abdulgadir

Amir Abdulgadir

Biography

Amir Abdulgadir is a junior at Howard University pursuing a double major in Physics
and Philosophy. As a Karsh STEM Scholar, he is passionate about answering fundamental
questions in astrophysics. The past two summers, he has been conducting research at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology through the MSRP program. Beyond the classroom,
Amir enjoys exploring the intersection of science and philosophy, particularly questions
about the nature of the universe and scientific reasoning. He has also been involved in STEM
outreach and student leadership, experiences that have strengthened his commitment to making
science more accessible and collaborative. Amir plans to pursue a Ph.D. in astrophysics and
hopes to build a career advancing our understanding of the universe while mentoring the next
generation of scientists.

Modeling The Resonance Properties of Josephson Junction Array Microwave
Kinetic Inductance Detectors
Amir Abdulgadir1, Jiatong Yang2, Doug Pinckney2 and Joseph Formaggio2
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Howard University
2Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Superconducting quantum processors are vulnerable to radiation. A single cosmic ray or
radioactive decay can deposit energy into the chip substrate, producing phonons that break
Cooper pairs across qubits. This can cause correlated errors that standard error correction
methods struggle to veto. Detecting these impacts as they happen would allow a processor to
veto the affected data, making these radiation sensors a tool for having more reliable quantum
computers. This project studies a detector designed for that role: Josephson Junction Array
Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (JAMKIDs), a small superconducting circuit built
from an array of Josephson Junctions in a series, tiny nonlinear islands whose admittance is
sensitive to the density of quasiparticles. When radiation breaks Cooper pairs, the resulting
quasiparticles shift the array’s admittance and therefore the circuit’s resonant frequency. This
can be read out as a change in the microwave signal transmitted past the device. To predict
the resonance properties of a specific design, we build a three-dimensional electrostatic model
of the chip to simulate the capacitances between its conductors and compute the expected
microwave response. This offers a repeatable path from device geometry to predicted
performance, supporting sensors that could make quantum processors more robust against
radiation-induced errors.