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
12
Feb
2025
Theory of an autonomous quantum heat engine based on superconducting electric circuits with non-Markovian heat baths
We propose and theoretically analyze a realistic superconducting electric circuit that can be used to realize an autonomous quantum heat engine in circuit quantum electrodynamics. Using
a quasiclassical, non-Markovian theoretical model, we demonstrate that coherent microwave photon generation can emerge solely from heat flow through the circuit and its nonlinear internal dynamics. The predicted generation rate is sufficiently high for experimental observation in circuit quantum electrodynamics, making this work a significant step toward the first experimental realization of an autonomous quantum heat engine in superconducting circuits.
Multiplexed qubit readout quality metric beyond assignment fidelity
The accurate measurement of quantum two-level objects (qubits) is crucial for developing quantum computing hardware. Over the last decade, the measure of choice for benchmarking readout
routines for superconducting qubits has been assignment fidelity. However, this method only focuses on the preparation of computational basis states and therefore does not provide a complete characterization of the readout. Here, we expand the focus to the use of detector tomography to fully characterize multi-qubit readout of superconducting transmon qubits. The impact of different readout parameters on the rate of information extraction is studied using quantum state reconstruction infidelity as a proxy. The results are then compared with assignment fidelities, showing good agreement for separable two-qubit states. We therefore propose the rate of infidelity convergence as an alternative and more comprehensive benchmark for single- and multi-qubit readout optimization. We find the most effective allocation of a fixed shot budget between detector tomography and state reconstruction in single- and two-qubit experiments. To address the growing interest in three-qubit gates, we perform three-qubit quantum state tomography that goes beyond conventional readout error mitigation methods and find a factor of 30 reduction in quantum infidelity. Our results demonstrate that neither quantum nor classical qubit readout correlations are induced even by very high levels of readout noise. Consequently, correlation coefficients can serve as a valuable tool in qubit readout optimization.
11
Feb
2025
Kinetic inductance coupling for circuit QED with spins
In contrast to the commonly used qubit resonator transverse coupling via the σxy-degree of freedom, longitudinal coupling through σz presents a tantalizing alternative: it does not
hybridize the modes, eliminating Purcell decay, and it enables quantum-non-demolishing qubit readout independent of the qubit-resonator frequency detuning. Here, we demonstrate longitudinal coupling between a {Cr7Ni} molecular spin qubit ensemble and the kinetic inductance of a granular aluminum superconducting microwave resonator. The inherent frequency-independence of this coupling allows for the utilization of a 7.8 GHz readout resonator to measure the full {Cr7Ni} magnetization curve spanning 0-600 mT, corresponding to a spin frequency range of fspin=0-15 GHz. For 2 GHz detuning from the readout resonator, we measure a 1/e spin relaxation time τ=0.38 s, limited by phonon decay to the substrate. Based on these results, we propose a path towards longitudinal coupling of single spins to a superconducting fluxonium qubit.
A proposal for charge basis tomography of superconducting qubits
We introduce a general protocol for obtaining the charge basis density matrix of a superconducting quantum circuit. Inspired by cavity state tomography, our protocol combines Josephson-energy
pulse sequences and projective charge-basis readout to access the off-diagonal elements of the density matrix, a scheme we thus dub charge basis tomography. We simulate the reconstruction of the ground state of a target transmon using the Aharonov-Casher effect in a probe qubit to realise projective readout and show the Hilbert-Schmidt distance can detect deviations from the correct model Hamiltonian. Unlocking this ability to validate models using the ground state sets the stage for using transmons to detect interacting and topological phases, particularly in materials where time-domain and spectroscopic probes can be limited by intrinsic noise.
Tomographic Signatures of Interacting Majorana and Andreev States in Superconductor-Semiconductor Transmon Qubits
Semiconductor-based Josephson junctions embedded within a Cooper-pair-box can host complex many-body states, such as interacting Andreev states and potentially other quasi-particles
of topological origin. Here, we study the insights that could be revealed from a tomographic reconstruction of the Cooper-pair charge distribution of the junction prepared in its ground state. We posit that interacting and topological states can be identified from distinct signatures within the probability distribution of the charge states. Furthermore, the comprehensive dataset provides direct access to information theory metrics elucidating the entanglement between the charge sector of the superconductor and the microscopic degrees of freedom in the junction. We demonstrate how these metrics serve to further classify differences between the types of excitations in the junction.
Enhancing dissipative cat qubit protection by squeezing
Dissipative cat-qubits are a promising architecture for quantum processors due to their built-in quantum error correction. By leveraging two-photon stabilization, they achieve an exponentially
suppressed bit-flip error rate as the distance in phase-space between their basis states increases, incurring only a linear increase in phase-flip rate. This property substantially reduces the number of qubits required for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Here, we implement a squeezing deformation of the cat qubit basis states, further extending the bit-flip time while minimally affecting the phase-flip rate. We demonstrate a steep reduction in the bit-flip error rate with increasing mean photon number, characterized by a scaling exponent γ=4.3, rising by a factor of 74 per added photon. Specifically, we measure bit-flip times of 22 seconds for a phase-flip time of 1.3 μs in a squeezed cat qubit with an average photon number n¯=4.1, a 160-fold improvement in bit-flip time compared to a standard cat. Moreover, we demonstrate a two-fold reduction in Z-gate infidelity, with an estimated phase-flip probability of ϵX=0.085 and a bit-flip probability of ϵZ=2.65⋅10−9 which confirms the gate bias-preserving property. This simple yet effective technique enhances cat qubit performances without requiring design modification, moving multi-cat architectures closer to fault-tolerant quantum computation.
08
Feb
2025
Telegraph flux noise induced beating Ramsey fringe in transmon qubits
Ramsey oscillations typically exhibit an exponential decay envelope due to environmental noise. However, recent experiments have observed nonmonotonic Ramsey fringes characterized by
beating patterns, which deviate from the standard behavior. These beating patterns have primarily been attributed to charge-noise fluctuations. In this paper, we investigate the flux-noise origin of these nonmonotonic Ramsey fringes in frequency-tunable transmon qubits. We develop a random telegraph noise (RTN) model to simulate the impact of telegraph-like flux-noise sources on Ramsey oscillations. Our simulations demonstrate that strong flux-RTN sources can induce beating patterns in the Ramsey fringes, showing excellent agreement with experimental observations in transmon qubits influenced by electronic environment-induced flux-noise. Our findings provide valuable insights into the role of flux-noise in qubit decoherence and underscore the importance of considering flux-noise RTN when analyzing nonmonotonic Ramsey fringes.
05
Feb
2025
Gain compression in Josephson Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifiers
Superconducting traveling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) are increasingly used in various applications, including quantum computing, quantum sensing, and dark matter detection.
However, one important characteristic of these amplifiers, gain compression, has not received much attention. As a result, there is a lack of comprehensive experimental exploration of this phenomenon in the existing literature. In this study, we present an experimental investigation of gain compression in a Josephson traveling-wave parametric amplifier based on a four-wave mixing process. We have implemented a novel setup to monitor the complex transmission of both the pump and signal tones, which allows us to simultaneously track pump depletion and signal amplification as functions of signal power and frequency across the entire bandwidth of the device. Our findings indicate that, while pump depletion occurs during gain compression, it is not the only mechanism involved in the saturation of a TWPA. Power-induced phase-matching processes also take place within the device. This study provides valuable insights for optimizing TWPAs for applications that require high total input power, such as multiplexed qubit readout or broadband photon emission.
01
Feb
2025
Stress Accommodation in Nanoscale Dolan Bridges Designed for Superconducting Qubits
Josephson junctions are the principal circuit element in numerous superconducting quantum information devices and can be readily integrated into large-scale electronics. However, device
integration at the wafer scale necessarily depends on having a reliable, high-fidelity, and high-yield fabrication method for creating Josephson junctions. When creating Al/AlOx based superconducting qubits, the standard Josephson junction fabrication method relies on a sub-micron suspended resist bridge, known as a Dolan bridge, which tends to be particularly fragile and can often times fracture during the resist development process, ultimately resulting in device failure. In this work, we demonstrate a unique Josephson junction lithography mask design that incorporates stress-relief channels. Our simulation results show that the addition of stress-relief channels reduces the lateral stress in the Dolan bridge by more than 70% for all the bridge geometries investigated. In practice, our novel mask design significantly increased the survivability of the bridge during device processing, resulting in 100% yield for over 100 Josephson junctions fabricated.
30
Jan
2025
Direct Implementation of High-Fidelity Three-Qubit Gates for Superconducting Processor with Tunable Couplers
Three-qubit gates can be constructed using combinations of single-qubit and two-qubit gates, making their independent realization unnecessary. However, direct implementation of three-qubit
gates reduces the depth of quantum circuits, streamlines quantum programming, and facilitates efficient circuit optimization, thereby enhancing overall performance in quantum computation. In this work, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a high-fidelity scheme for implementing a three-qubit controlled-controlled-Z (CCZ) gate in a flip-chip superconducting quantum processor with tunable couplers. This direct CCZ gate is implemented by simultaneously leveraging two tunable couplers interspersed between three qubits to enable three-qubit interactions, achieving an average final state fidelity of 97.94% and a process fidelity of 93.54%. This high fidelity cannot be achieved through a simple combination of single- and two-qubit gate sequences from processors with similar performance levels. Our experiments also verify that multi-layer direct implementation of the CCZ gate exhibits lower leakage compared to decomposed gate approaches. To further showcase the versatility of our approach, we construct a Toffoli gate by combining the CCZ gate with Hadamard gates. As a showcase, we utilize the CCZ gate as an oracle to implement the Grover search algorithm on three qubits, demonstrating high performance with the target probability amplitude significantly enhanced after two iterations. These results highlight the advantage of our approach, and facilitate the implementation of complex quantum circuits.