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
10
Sep
2026
Engineered two-photon dissipative confinement of a Kerr-cat qubit using SISIS quantum circuit refrigerator
Kerr-cat qubits realized in periodically driven superconducting nonlinear resonators are a promising platform for quantum information processing with biased noise. Pure dephasing in
such systems induces leakage out of the qubit subspace, motivating the use of quantum circuit refrigeration (QCR) to remove excess excitations. While conventional superconductor–insulator–normal-metal–insulator–superconductor (SINIS)-based QCRs can suppress leakage via single-photon absorption, they also enhance QCR-induced phase-flip errors. Here we investigate a QCR based on a superconductor–insulator–superconductor–insulator–superconductor (SISIS) junction coupled to a Kerr parametric oscillator (KPO). We show that a SISIS-based QCR can operate in a regime where single-photon processes are suppressed while two-photon absorption dominates. As a result, the proposed SISIS-based QCR achieves strong suppression of dephasing-induced leakage while substantially reducing the increase in phase-flip errors associated with QCR operation. These results demonstrate that the proposed SISIS-based QCR provides an effective approach for mitigating leakage while limiting QCR-induced phase-flip errors in Kerr-cat qubits.
09
Sep
2026
Conditional-squeezing gate in superconducting circuits
We present an implementation of a conditional-squeezing gate that squeezes a SQUID-terminated resonator mode along a direction determined by the state of a dispersively coupled qubit.
This gate generalizes the controlled-squeezing gate [Phys. Rev. A \textbf{111}, 042606 (2025)], and relies on a refocusing technique to suppress unwanted effects arising from slowly varying time-dependent terms in the Hamiltonian during the state-dependent parametric resonance required for the operation. As an application, we use the gate to encode an arbitrary qubit state into superpositions of single- and two-mode squeezed states of the resonator. These non-Gaussian states enable error-detectable encoding through parity measurements. We show that refocusing substantially improves the encoding fidelity, which is ultimately limited by Kerr nonlinearities and dissipation in realistic implementations. For experimentally optimistic values of the nonlinearities and decay rates, we obtain encoding fidelities above 0.99 for arbitrary input qubit states. Our results provide a route toward extending this scheme to the generation of higher-order superpositions of squeezed states (a class of rotation-symmetric bosonic codes) using a control qudit.
Programmable CMOS DAC Operating in Cryogenic Environments for Controlling Superconducting Qubits
This paper presents the design and test results of a CMOS current-based Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) that operates at cryogenic temperatures and that can be used to precisely control
the amount of flux coupled to qubits or that can be used in the readout of superconducting circuits. The current pulse output can be controlled in terms of its amplitude, rise and fall slopes, via digital controls, and pulse width, via external triggers, while driving a superconducting circuit. The design has been implemented in a planar 90 nm CMOS process and test results closely match circuit predictions. The solution’s wide degree of digital tunability affords potential application of the same device to many types of quantum circuits, beyond those discussed here. Due to the wide-ranging flexibility of digital CMOS control, we envision that this DAC design will enable the next generation of high-fidelity cryo-CMOS control architectures for superconducting qubits.
08
Sep
2026
Materials for Quantum Information Science: Roles in the Quantum Evolution 2.0
Quantum information science is entering a second phase, the Quantum Evolution 2.0, in which the challenge has shifted from demonstrating coherent control of individual quantum states
to building scalable multi-qubit processors and networks. This transition places materials science at the center of the field. Across superconducting circuits, quantum defects, quantum photonic devices, and emerging materials platforms, including two-dimensional materials and heterostructures, performance is now limited less by device design than by poorly controlled surfaces, buried interfaces, and defects whose atomic identities remain incompletely known. This review surveys the materials challenges of these quantum platforms together with the characterization methods needed to resolve them. For each platform we identify the dominant decoherence mechanisms, the current state of materials understanding, and the most pressing open materials problems. A cross-platform comparison then reveals a shared structure-coherence problem. The implicated material chemistry recurs across platforms, involving light elements in disordered or buried environments, yet no platform can quantitatively connect a specific atomic-scale structure to a measured change in coherence. We close by identifying three needs, mechanistic understanding of decoherence at the atomistic level, high-throughput proxy metrics predictive of device performance, and characterization tools built for quantum materials, whose resolution would advance coherence, scalability, and integration across all platforms.
Josephson energy of superconducting junctions: amorphous versus crystalline tunnel barriers
The Josephson energy EJ is a key parameter governing the properties of transmon superconducting qubits. In Al/AlOx/Al junctions, EJ is set by electron tunneling through an ultrathin
oxide barrier and therefore depends exponentially on the atomic structure of the barrier. We compute EJ by first-principles device modeling based on the NEGF-DFT quantum-transport method, comparing a junction with a crystalline Al2O3 barrier against ten junctions with melt–quenched amorphous Al2O3 barriers of the same thickness. From the Fermi-level transmission and the Ambegaokar–Baratoff relation, we obtain a mean EJ/h of 2.78 GHz for the amorphous ensemble, with a standard deviation of 4.67 GHz, compared with 0.73 GHz for the crystalline reference; individual amorphous values span nearly two orders of magnitude. Scattering-state analysis shows that transport is quantum tunneling and that the variability originates from stoichiometric inhomogeneity of the amorphous oxide: Al-rich, low-barrier regions can connect into percolation-like tunneling pathways that strongly enhance the conductance. A realistic 200×200 nm2 junction self-averages over more than 2×104 such microscopic regions. These results establish a quantitative atomistic route from oxide microstructure to the superconducting-circuit energy scale EJ.
Fabrication And Characterization Of High-Quality Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb Cross-Type Josephson Tunnel Junctions Utilising CMP-based Planarisation Techniques
Josephson tunnel junctions (JJs) are the fundamental building blocks of today’s most advanced superconducting electronic components, such as qubits and superconducting quantum
interference devices (SQUIDs). Given the ongoing demand for scalability of these devices on the wafer-scale, it is crucial to control the fabrication process as precisely as possible to ensure uniform quality and reproducibility. Today, window-type JJs are often used in the production of DC SQUIDs and while they are reliable and reproducible, they suffer from alignment inaccuracies caused by photolithography and unavoidable parasitic capacitances, thus limiting the energy sensitivity of DC SQUIDs. These problems can be circumvented by producing JJs with cross-type geometry, which allows for smaller junction areas and eliminates parasitic capacitances. Here we discuss the fabrication of Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb-based cross-type JJs, where the trilayer is embedded in sputter-deposited SiO2 to allow for planarisation of the structures and to ensure the reliable insulation of the sidewalls of the bottom electrode. Instead of lift-off processes that require a lot of time and potentially leave unwanted wings along the edges of microstructures behind that might compromise subsequent layers, we use chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) for the removal of excess SiO2. This is not only much faster, but produces smooth and uniform surfaces, which in turn effectively improves the reliability of our JJ production process resulting in a high yield of over 90% on wafer-scale. In addition, we discuss the influence of fabrication details on the quality and electrical properties of our JJs with different junction areas down to 1μm×1μm distributed across the wafer and extract the junction specific quality parameters from their IV-characteristics and their Fraunhofer patterns.
04
Sep
2026
Dynamical Reduction of Two Series Josephson Junctions to a Synthetic High-Transparency Josephson Element
Two conventional Josephson junctions connected in series can reproduce, in the static limit in which the currents through the capacitive and resistive channels are negligible, the current-phase
relation of a single effective weak link with tunable transparency. Therefore, the two-junction series can be treated as a single synthetic high-transparency element. Here, we investigate to what extent this mapping remains valid under finite-frequency drive and retaining the junctions‘ resistive and capacitive terms. The full resistively and capacitively shunted junction equations are compared with an effective synthetic element with tunable transparency that retains the synthetic tunable-transparency current-phase relation together with effective capacitive and dissipative terms, thus reducing the two second order degree of freedom system to a single second order degree of freedom. The resulting single-element dynamics is compared with the complete two-junction system under ac excitation. The agreement is quantified through a normalized root-mean-square error between the full and effective voltage waveforms. A broad low-error region is found at low drive frequency, while pronounced deviations emerge as the drive frequency approaches the relevant plasma-frequency scale and at larger drive amplitudes. The results provide a quantitative dynamical criterion for using the reduced single-element description of a synthetic high-transparency Josephson element in superconducting circuits.
Strong-Drive Limits in Josephson Circuits: From Chaos to an Unbound-Resonance Threshold
Strong microwave drives enable fast measurement and parametric control in superconducting circuits but can induce transitions out of the intended low-energy manifold. We develop a unified
description of strong-drive limits in flux- and charge-driven Josephson circuits across drive frequency and dc flux bias. Using classical phase-space analysis and Floquet–Markov simulations, we identify distinct low- and high-frequency mechanisms. At low frequency, we characterize bound-state resonances and separatrix chaos and find that the flux-drive chaos threshold depends strongly on dc flux bias. At high frequency, these mechanisms are suppressed, and the dissipative steady state transfers from the central bound-state sector to outer resonances formed by above-barrier running trajectories. The resulting unbound-resonance threshold is nearly independent of drive frequency and circuit parameters over the regime studied and is controlled primarily by dc flux bias. Coherent simulations show that parametric operation persists beyond this threshold, but at a reduced rate, setting an effective upper bound on the achievable operation speed. We derive analytical criteria for both thresholds, validate them numerically, and experimentally confirm the predicted dc-bias dependence of the low-frequency threshold in a flux-driven SQUID. We also determine the timescales for transfer into the unbound-resonance regime and relaxation back to the bound-state manifold after the drive is removed. Finally, we relate the stability limits to a complementary picture based on the junction critical current and extend the framework to multitone drives and inductively shunted circuits. Together, these results identify the mechanisms limiting strong driving and suggest routes to extend the stable operating range of Josephson circuits.
A double-resonator coupler for high-fidelity two-qubit gates between superconducting qubits
Tunable couplers have enabled two-qubit gate fidelities in superconducting quantum processors to approach 99.9%, yet simultaneously suppressing residual interactions and maintaining
flexible qubit-frequency allocation remain central challenges for scaling. Here, we propose a double-resonator coupler (DRC) consisting of two resonators interconnected by a single Josephson junction and a capacitor. The hybridized resonator modes provide two mediated exchange paths whose interference controls the qubit-qubit interaction. The DRC enables complete cancellation of residual ZZ interaction for qubit-qubit detunings well outside the straddling regime, even in the absence of direct qubit-qubit coupling, thereby relaxing constraints on frequency allocation and qubit placement. Away from the idle point, the same circuit provides a strong ZZ interaction of approximately 70MHz, enabling a 20ns controlled-Z gate with simulated coherent infidelity below 10−5. These results establish the DRC as a flexible single-junction coupler architecture for high-fidelity superconducting quantum processors.
TETRIS-Q: Tiling-based Effective Transient-fault Reduction on Interleaved Superconducting Qubits
The struggle of the hour in quantum computing research is achieving effective suppression of the error mechanisms induced by the interaction of external radiation with superconducting
quantum devices. Despite the rapid advancements in quantum error correction (QEC) of recent years, radiation-induced faults are yet to be fully addressed. These events are known to be the cause of simultaneous correlated defects in qubits that lie onto a single substrate, ultimately jeopardising QEC code effectiveness.
In this paper, we propose to selectively combine substrate-level phonon barriers and QEC interleaving via a planar-mesh tiling algorithm, TETRIS-Q, reaching efficient and effective suppression of radiation events. Our cross-layer solution comes at no extra cost in terms of QEC code execution or decoding time. We model and simulate radiation-induced transient faults over a plethora of barrier and QEC interleaving configurations. Through more than 51 million quantum circuit simulations, we show peak logical error reductions of more than 99.8%, together with an 80% reduction of the observable transient duration with permeable barriers. We find that sparser tiling can reach comparable performance to single qubit tiling, prompting cost reductions of upwards of 87% in barrier tracing. By leveraging independent QEC code interleaving, we measure up to one order of magnitude average logical error rate reductions without the use of permeable barriers, and up to three orders of magnitude with the joint usage of barriers.