High-Fidelity, Frequency-Flexible Two-Qubit Fluxonium Gates with a Transmon Coupler

  1. Leon Ding,
  2. Max Hays,
  3. Youngkyu Sung,
  4. Bharath Kannan,
  5. Junyoung An,
  6. Agustin Di Paolo,
  7. Amir H. Karamlou,
  8. Thomas M. Hazard,
  9. Kate Azar,
  10. David K. Kim,
  11. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  12. Alexander Melville,
  13. Mollie E. Schwartz,
  14. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  15. Terry P. Orlando,
  16. Simon Gustavsson,
  17. Jeffrey A. Grover,
  18. Kyle Serniak,
  19. and William D. Oliver
We propose and demonstrate an architecture for fluxonium-fluxonium two-qubit gates mediated by transmon couplers (FTF, for fluxonium-transmon-fluxonium). Relative to architectures that
exclusively rely on a direct coupling between fluxonium qubits, FTF enables stronger couplings for gates using non-computational states while simultaneously suppressing the static controlled-phase entangling rate (ZZ) down to kHz levels, all without requiring strict parameter matching. Here we implement FTF with a flux-tunable transmon coupler and demonstrate a microwave-activated controlled-Z (CZ) gate whose operation frequency can be tuned over a 2 GHz range, adding frequency allocation freedom for FTF’s in larger systems. Across this range, state-of-the-art CZ gate fidelities were observed over many bias points and reproduced across the two devices characterized in this work. After optimizing both the operation frequency and the gate duration, we achieved peak CZ fidelities in the 99.85-99.9\% range. Finally, we implemented model-free reinforcement learning of the pulse parameters to boost the mean gate fidelity up to 99.922±0.009%, averaged over roughly an hour between scheduled training runs. Beyond the microwave-activated CZ gate we present here, FTF can be applied to a variety of other fluxonium gate schemes to improve gate fidelities and passively reduce unwanted ZZ interactions.

Evolution of 1/f Flux Noise in Superconducting Qubits with Weak Magnetic Fields

  1. David A. Rower,
  2. Lamia Ateshian,
  3. Lauren H. Li,
  4. Max Hays,
  5. Dolev Bluvstein,
  6. Leon Ding,
  7. Bharath Kannan,
  8. Aziza Almanakly,
  9. Jochen Braumüller,
  10. David K. Kim,
  11. Alexander Melville,
  12. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  13. Mollie E. Schwartz,
  14. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  15. Terry P. Orlando,
  16. Joel I-Jan Wang,
  17. Simon Gustavsson,
  18. Jeffrey A. Grover,
  19. Kyle Serniak,
  20. Riccardo Comin,
  21. and William D. Oliver
The microscopic origin of 1/f magnetic flux noise in superconducting circuits has remained an open question for several decades despite extensive experimental and theoretical investigation.
Recent progress in superconducting devices for quantum information has highlighted the need to mitigate sources of qubit decoherence, driving a renewed interest in understanding the underlying noise mechanism(s). Though a consensus has emerged attributing flux noise to surface spins, their identity and interaction mechanisms remain unclear, prompting further study. Here we apply weak in-plane magnetic fields to a capacitively-shunted flux qubit (where the Zeeman splitting of surface spins lies below the device temperature) and study the flux-noise-limited qubit dephasing, revealing previously unexplored trends that may shed light on the dynamics behind the emergent 1/f noise. Notably, we observe an enhancement (suppression) of the spin-echo (Ramsey) pure dephasing time in fields up to B=100 G. With direct noise spectroscopy, we further observe a transition from a 1/f to approximately Lorentzian frequency dependence below 10 Hz and a reduction of the noise above 1 MHz with increasing magnetic field. We suggest that these trends are qualitatively consistent with an increase of spin cluster sizes with magnetic field. These results should help to inform a complete microscopic theory of 1/f flux noise in superconducting circuits.

On-Demand Directional Photon Emission using Waveguide Quantum Electrodynamics

  1. Bharath Kannan,
  2. Aziza Almanakly,
  3. Youngkyu Sung,
  4. Agustin Di Paolo,
  5. David A. Rower,
  6. Jochen Braumüller,
  7. Alexander Melville,
  8. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  9. Amir Karamlou,
  10. Kyle Serniak,
  11. Antti Vepsäläinen,
  12. Mollie E. Schwartz,
  13. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  14. Roni Winik,
  15. Joel I-Jan Wang,
  16. Terry P. Orlando,
  17. Simon Gustavsson,
  18. Jeffrey A. Grover,
  19. and William D. Oliver
Routing quantum information between non-local computational nodes is a foundation for extensible networks of quantum processors. Quantum information can be transferred between arbitrary
nodes by photons that propagate between them, or by resonantly coupling nearby nodes. Notably, conventional approaches involving propagating photons have limited fidelity due to photon loss and are often unidirectional, whereas architectures that use direct resonant coupling are bidirectional in principle, but can generally accommodate only a few local nodes. Here, we demonstrate high-fidelity, on-demand, bidirectional photon emission using an artificial molecule comprising two superconducting qubits strongly coupled to a waveguide. Quantum interference between the photon emission pathways from the molecule generate single photons that selectively propagate in a chosen direction. This architecture is capable of both photon emission and capture, and can be tiled in series to form an extensible network of quantum processors with all-to-all connectivity.

Hexagonal Boron Nitride (hBN) as a Low-loss Dielectric for Superconducting Quantum Circuits and Qubits

  1. Joel I.J. Wang,
  2. Megan A. Yamoah,
  3. Qing Li,
  4. Amir Karamlou,
  5. Thao Dinh,
  6. Bharath Kannan,
  7. Jochen Braumüller,
  8. David Kim,
  9. Alexander J. Melville,
  10. Sarah E. Muschinske,
  11. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  12. Kyle Serniak,
  13. Youngkyu Sung,
  14. Roni Winik,
  15. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  16. Mollie Schwartz,
  17. Kenji Watanabe,
  18. Takashi Taniguchi,
  19. Terry P. Orlando,
  20. Simon Gustavsson,
  21. Pablo Jarillo-Herrero,
  22. and William D. Oliver
Dielectrics with low loss at microwave frequencies are imperative for high-coherence solid-state quantum computing platforms. We study the dielectric loss of hexagonal boron nitride
(hBN) thin films in the microwave regime by measuring the quality factor of parallel-plate capacitors (PPCs) made of NbSe2-hBN-NbSe2 heterostructures integrated into superconducting circuits. The extracted microwave loss tangent of hBN is bounded to be at most in the mid-10-6 range in the low temperature, single-photon regime. We integrate hBN PPCs with aluminum Josephson junctions to realize transmon qubits with coherence times reaching 25 μs, consistent with the hBN loss tangent inferred from resonator measurements. The hBN PPC reduces the qubit feature size by approximately two-orders of magnitude compared to conventional all-aluminum coplanar transmons. Our results establish hBN as a promising dielectric for building high-coherence quantum circuits with substantially reduced footprint and, with a high energy participation that helps to reduce unwanted qubit cross-talk.

Quantum transport and localization in 1d and 2d tight-binding lattices

  1. Amir H. Karamlou,
  2. Jochen Braumüller,
  3. Yariv Yanay,
  4. Agustin Di Paolo,
  5. Patrick Harrington,
  6. Bharath Kannan,
  7. David Kim,
  8. Morten Kjaergaard,
  9. Alexander Melville,
  10. Sarah Muschinske,
  11. Bethany Niedzielski,
  12. Antti Vepsäläinen,
  13. Roni Winik,
  14. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  15. Mollie Schwartz,
  16. Charles Tahan,
  17. Terry P. Orlando,
  18. Simon Gustavsson,
  19. and William D. Oliver
Particle transport and localization phenomena in condensed-matter systems can be modeled using a tight-binding lattice Hamiltonian. The ideal experimental emulation of such a model
utilizes simultaneous, high-fidelity control and readout of each lattice site in a highly coherent quantum system. Here, we experimentally study quantum transport in one-dimensional and two-dimensional tight-binding lattices, emulated by a fully controllable 3×3 array of superconducting qubits. We probe the propagation of entanglement throughout the lattice and extract the degree of localization in the Anderson and Wannier-Stark regimes in the presence of site-tunable disorder strengths and gradients. Our results are in quantitative agreement with numerical simulations and match theoretical predictions based on the tight-binding model. The demonstrated level of experimental control and accuracy in extracting the system observables of interest will enable the exploration of larger, interacting lattices where numerical simulations become intractable.

Improving qubit coherence using closed-loop feedback

  1. Antti Vepsäläinen,
  2. Roni Winik,
  3. Amir H. Karamlou,
  4. Jochen Braumüller,
  5. Agustin Di Paolo,
  6. Youngkyu Sung,
  7. Bharath Kannan,
  8. Morten Kjaergaard,
  9. David K. Kim,
  10. Alexander J. Melville,
  11. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  12. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  13. Simon Gustavsson,
  14. and William D. Oliver
Superconducting qubits are a promising platform for building a larger-scale quantum processor capable of solving otherwise intractable problems. In order for the processor to reach
practical viability, the gate errors need to be further suppressed and remain stable for extended periods of time. With recent advances in qubit control, both single- and two-qubit gate fidelities are now in many cases limited by the coherence times of the qubits. Here we experimentally employ closed-loop feedback to stabilize the frequency fluctuations of a superconducting transmon qubit, thereby increasing its coherence time by 26\% and reducing the single-qubit error rate from (8.5±2.1)×10−4 to (5.9±0.7)×10−4. Importantly, the resulting high-fidelity operation remains effective even away from the qubit flux-noise insensitive point, significantly increasing the frequency bandwidth over which the qubit can be operated with high fidelity. This approach is helpful in large qubit grids, where frequency crowding and parasitic interactions between the qubits limit their performance.

Probing quantum information propagation with out-of-time-ordered correlators

  1. Jochen Braumüller,
  2. Amir H. Karamlou,
  3. Yariv Yanay,
  4. Bharath Kannan,
  5. David Kim,
  6. Morten Kjaergaard,
  7. Alexander Melville,
  8. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  9. Youngkyu Sung,
  10. Antti Vepsäläinen,
  11. Roni Winik,
  12. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  13. Terry P. Orlando,
  14. Simon Gustavsson,
  15. Charles Tahan,
  16. and William D. Oliver
Interacting many-body quantum systems show a rich array of physical phenomena and dynamical properties, but are notoriously difficult to study: they are challenging analytically and
exponentially difficult to simulate on classical computers. Small-scale quantum information processors hold the promise to efficiently emulate these systems, but characterizing their dynamics is experimentally challenging, requiring probes beyond simple correlation functions and multi-body tomographic methods. Here, we demonstrate the measurement of out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs), one of the most effective tools for studying quantum system evolution and processes like quantum thermalization. We implement a 3×3 two-dimensional hard-core Bose-Hubbard lattice with a superconducting circuit, study its time-reversibility by performing a Loschmidt echo, and measure OTOCs that enable us to observe the propagation of quantum information. A central requirement for our experiments is the ability to coherently reverse time evolution, which we achieve with a digital-analog simulation scheme. In the presence of frequency disorder, we observe that localization can partially be overcome with more particles present, a possible signature of many-body localization in two dimensions.

Microwave Package Design for Superconducting Quantum Processors

  1. Sihao Huang,
  2. Benjamin Lienhard,
  3. Greg Calusine,
  4. Antti Vepsäläinen,
  5. Jochen Braumüller,
  6. David K. Kim,
  7. Alexander J. Melville,
  8. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  9. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  10. Bharath Kannan,
  11. Terry P. Orlando,
  12. Simon Gustavsson,
  13. and William D. Oliver
Solid-state qubits with transition frequencies in the microwave regime, such as superconducting qubits, are at the forefront of quantum information processing. However, high-fidelity,
simultaneous control of superconducting qubits at even a moderate scale remains a challenge, partly due to the complexities of packaging these devices. Here, we present an approach to microwave package design focusing on material choices, signal line engineering, and spurious mode suppression. We describe design guidelines validated using simulations and measurements used to develop a 24-port microwave package. Analyzing the qubit environment reveals no spurious modes up to 11GHz. The material and geometric design choices enable the package to support qubits with lifetimes exceeding 350 {\mu}s. The microwave package design guidelines presented here address many issues relevant for near-term quantum processors.

Realization of high-fidelity CZ and ZZ-free iSWAP gates with a tunable coupler

  1. Youngkyu Sung,
  2. Leon Ding,
  3. Jochen Braumüller,
  4. Antti Vepsäläinen,
  5. Bharath Kannan,
  6. Morten Kjaergaard,
  7. Ami Greene,
  8. Gabriel O. Samach,
  9. Chris McNally,
  10. David Kim,
  11. Alexander Melville,
  12. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  13. Mollie E. Schwartz,
  14. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  15. Terry P. Orlando,
  16. Simon Gustavsson,
  17. and William D. Oliver
High-fidelity two-qubit gates at scale are a key requirement to realize the full promise of quantum computation and simulation. The advent and use of coupler elements to tunably control
two-qubit interactions has improved operational fidelity in many-qubit systems by reducing parasitic coupling and frequency crowding issues. However, two-qubit gate errors still limit the capability of near-term quantum applications. In particular, the existing framework for tunable couplers based on the dispersive approximation does not fully incorporate three-body multi-level dynamics, which are essential for addressing coherent leakage to the coupler and parasitic longitudinal (ZZ) interactions during two-qubit gates. Here, we present a new systematic approach that goes beyond the dispersive approximation and outlines how to optimize the coupler-control and exploit the engineered level structure of the coupler. Using this approach, we experimentally demonstrate a CZ gate with 99.76 ± 0.10 % fidelity and a ZZ-free iSWAP gate with 99.86 ± 0.32 % fidelity, which are close to their T1 limits.

Universal non-adiabatic control of small-gap superconducting qubits

  1. Daniel L. Campbell,
  2. Yun-Pil Shim,
  3. Bharath Kannan,
  4. Roni Winik,
  5. Alexander Melville,
  6. Bethany M. Niedzielski,
  7. Jonilyn L. Yoder,
  8. Charles Tahan,
  9. Simon Gustavsson,
  10. and William D. Oliver
Resonant transverse driving of a two-level system as viewed in the rotating frame couples two degenerate states at the Rabi frequency, an amazing equivalence that emerges in quantum
mechanics. While spectacularly successful at controlling natural and artificial quantum systems, certain limitations may arise (e.g., the achievable gate speed) due to non-idealities like the counter-rotating term. Here, we explore a complementary approach to quantum control based on non-resonant, non-adiabatic driving of a longitudinal parameter in the presence of a fixed transverse coupling. We introduce a superconducting composite qubit (CQB), formed from two capacitively coupled transmon qubits, which features a small avoided crossing — smaller than the environmental temperature — between two energy levels. We control this low-frequency CQB using solely baseband pulses, non-adiabatic transitions, and coherent Landau-Zener interference to achieve fast, high-fidelity, single-qubit operations with Clifford fidelities exceeding 99.7%. We also perform coupled qubit operations between two low-frequency CQBs. This work demonstrates that universal non-adiabatic control of low-frequency qubits is feasible using solely baseband pulses.