  We have demonstrated a novel type of superconducting transmon qubit in which
a Josephson junction has been engineered to act as its own parallel shunt
capacitor. This merged-element transmon (MET) potentially offers a smaller
footprint and simpler fabrication than conventional transmons. Because it
concentrates the electromagnetic energy inside the junction, it reduces
relative electric field participation from other interfaces. By combining
micrometer-scale Al/AlOx/Al junctions with long oxidations and novel
processing, we have produced functional devices with $E_{J}$/$E_{C}$ in the low
transmon regime ($E_{J}$/$E_{C}$ $\lesssim$30). Cryogenic I-V measurements show
sharp dI/dV structure with low sub-gap conduction. Qubit spectroscopy of
tunable versions show a small number of avoided level crossings, suggesting the
presence of two-level systems (TLS). We have observed mean T1 times typically
in the range of 10-90 microseconds, with some annealed devices exhibiting T1 >
100 microseconds over several hours. The results suggest that energy relaxation
in conventional, small-junction transmons is not limited by junction loss.
