I am going to post here all newly submitted articles on the arXiv related to superconducting circuits. If your article has been accidentally forgotten, feel free to contact me
21
Sep
2017
Spectral signatures of many-body localization with interacting photons
Statistical mechanics is founded on the assumption that a system can reach thermal equilibrium, regardless of the starting state. Interactions between particles facilitate thermalization,
but, can interacting systems always equilibrate regardless of parameter values\,? The energy spectrum of a system can answer this question and reveal the nature of the underlying phases. However, most experimental techniques only indirectly probe the many-body energy spectrum. Using a chain of nine superconducting qubits, we implement a novel technique for directly resolving the energy levels of interacting photons. We benchmark this method by capturing the intricate energy spectrum predicted for 2D electrons in a magnetic field, the Hofstadter butterfly. By increasing disorder, the spatial extent of energy eigenstates at the edge of the energy band shrink, suggesting the formation of a mobility edge. At strong disorder, the energy levels cease to repel one another and their statistics approaches a Poisson distribution – the hallmark of transition from the thermalized to the many-body localized phase. Our work introduces a new many-body spectroscopy technique to study quantum phases of matter.
19
Sep
2017
A blueprint for demonstrating quantum supremacy with superconducting qubits
Fundamental questions in chemistry and physics may never be answered due to the exponential complexity of the underlying quantum phenomena. A desire to overcome this challenge has sparked
a new industry of quantum technologies with the promise that engineered quantum systems can address these hard problems. A key step towards demonstrating such a system will be performing a computation beyond the capabilities of any classical computer, achieving so-called quantum supremacy. Here, using 9 superconducting qubits, we demonstrate an immediate path towards quantum supremacy. By individually tuning the qubit parameters, we are able to generate thousands of unique Hamiltonian evolutions and probe the output probabilities. The measured probabilities obey a universal distribution, consistent with uniformly sampling the full Hilbert-space. As the number of qubits in the algorithm is varied, the system continues to explore the exponentially growing number of states. Combining these large datasets with techniques from machine learning allows us to construct a model which accurately predicts the measured probabilities. We demonstrate an application of these algorithms by systematically increasing the disorder and observing a transition from delocalized states to localized states. By extending these results to a system of 50 qubits, we hope to address scientific questions that are beyond the capabilities of any classical computer.
Gate error analysis in simulations of quantum computers with transmon qubits
In the model of gate-based quantum computation, the qubits are controlled by a sequence of quantum gates. In superconducting qubit systems, these gates can be implemented by voltage
pulses. The success of implementing a particular gate can be expressed by various metrics such as the average gate fidelity, the diamond distance, and the unitarity. We analyze these metrics of gate pulses for a system of two superconducting transmon qubits coupled by a resonator, a system inspired by the architecture of the IBM Quantum Experience. The metrics are obtained by numerical solution of the time-dependent Schr\“odinger equation of the transmon system. We find that the metrics reflect systematic errors that are most pronounced for echoed cross-resonance gates, but that none of the studied metrics can reliably predict the performance of a gate when used repeatedly in a quantum algorithm.
18
Sep
2017
Topological Maxwell Metal Bands in a Superconducting Qutrit
We experimentally explore the topological Maxwell metal bands by mapping the momentum space of condensed-matter models to the tunable parameter space of superconducting quantum circuits.
An exotic band structure that is effectively described by the spin-1 Maxwell equations is imaged. Three-fold degenerate points dubbed Maxwell points are observed in the Maxwell metal bands. Moreover, we engineer and observe the topological phase transition from the topological Maxwell metal to a trivial insulator, and report the first experiment to measure the Chern numbers that are higher than one.
15
Sep
2017
A CNOT gate between multiphoton qubits encoded in two cavities
Entangling gates between qubits are a crucial component for performing algorithms in quantum computers. However, any quantum algorithm will ultimately have to operate on error-protected
logical qubits, which are effective qubits encoded in a high-dimensional Hilbert space. A common approach is to encode logical qubits in collective states of multiple two-level systems, but algorithms operating on multiple logical qubits are highly complex and have not yet been demonstrated. Here, we experimentally realize a controlled NOT (CNOT) gate between two multiphoton qubits in two microwave cavities. In this approach, we encode a qubit in the large Hilbert space of a single cavity mode, rather than in multiple two-level systems. We couple two such encoded qubits together through a transmon, which is driven with an RF pump to apply the CNOT gate within 190 ns. This is two orders of magnitude shorter than the decoherence time of any part of the system, enabling high-fidelity operations comparable to state-of-the-art gates between two-level systems. These results are an important step towards universal algorithms on error-corrected logical qubits.
14
Sep
2017
Quantum microwave-optical interface with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond
We propose an efficient scheme for a coherent quantum interface between microwave and optical photons using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond. In this setup, an NV center ensemble
is simultaneously coupled to an optical and a microwave cavity. We show that, by using the collective spin excitation modes as an intermediary, quantum states can be transferred between the microwave cavity and the optical cavity through either a double-swap scheme or a dark-state protocol. This hybrid quantum interface may provide interesting applications in single microwave photon detections or quantum information processing.
12
Sep
2017
Superadiabatic population transfer by loop driving and synthetic gauges in a superconducting circuit
The achievement of fast and error-insensitive control of quantum systems is a primary goal in quantum information science. Here we use the first three levels of a transmon superconducting
circuit to realize a loop driving scheme, with all three possible pairs of states coupled by pulsed microwave tones. In this configuration, we implement a superadiabatic protocol for population transfer, where two couplings produce the standard stimulated Raman adiabatic passage, while the third is a counterdiabatic field which suppresses the nonadiabatic excitations. We demonstrate that the population can be controlled by the synthetic gauge-invariant phase around the loop as well as by the amplitudes of the three pulses. The technique enables fast operation, with transfer times approaching the quantum speed limit, and it is remarkably robust against errors in the shape of the pulses.
Realization of a quantum random generator certified with the Kochen-Specker theorem
Random numbers are required for a variety of applications from secure communications to Monte-Carlo simulation. Yet randomness is an asymptotic property and no output string generated
by a physical device can be strictly proven to be random. We report an experimental realization of a quantum random number generator (QRNG) with randomness certified by quantum contextuality and the Kochen-Specker theorem. The certification is not performed in a device-independent way but through a rigorous theoretical proof of each outcome being value-indefinite even in the presence of experimental imperfections. The analysis of the generated data confirms the incomputable nature of our QRNG.
07
Sep
2017
High Coherence Plane Breaking Packaging for Superconducting Qubits
We demonstrate a pogo pin package for a superconducting quantum processor specifically designed with a nontrivial layout topology (e.g., a center qubit that cannot be accessed from
the sides of the chip). Two experiments on two nominally identical superconducting quantum processors in pogo packages, which use commercially available parts and require modest machining tolerances, are performed at low temperature (10 mK) in a dilution refrigerator and both found to behave comparably to processors in standard planar packages with wirebonds where control and readout signals come in from the edges. Single- and two-qubit gate errors are also characterized via randomized benchmarking. More detailed crosstalk measurements indicate levels of crosstalk less than -40 dB at the qubit frequencies, opening the possibility of integration with extensible qubit architectures.
04
Sep
2017
Probing the strongly driven spin-boson model in a superconducting quantum circuit
Quantum two-level systems interacting with the surroundings are ubiquitous in nature. The interaction suppresses quantum coherence and forces the system towards a steady state. Such
dissipative processes are captured by the paradigmatic spin-boson model, describing a two-state particle, the „spin“, interacting with an environment formed by harmonic oscillators. A fundamental question to date is to what extent intense coherent driving impacts a strongly dissipative system. Here we investigate experimentally and theoretically a superconducting qubit strongly coupled to an electromagnetic environment and subjected to a coherent drive. This setup realizes the driven Ohmic spin-boson model. We show that the drive reinforces environmental suppression of quantum coherence, and that a coherent-to-incoherent transition can be achieved by tuning the drive amplitude. An out-of-equilibrium detailed balance relation is demonstrated. These results advance fundamental understanding of open quantum systems and bear potential for applications in quantum technologies.