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
13
Apr
2021
Quantum analysis of second-order effects in superconducting travelling-wave parametric amplifiers
We have performed a quantum mechanical analysis of travelling-wave parametric amplifiers (TWPAs) in order to investigate five experimental phenomena related to their operations, namely
the effect of impedance mismatch, the presence of upper idler modes, the presence of quantum and thermal noise, the generation of squeezed states, and the preservation of pre-squeezed states during amplification. Our analysis uses momentum operators to describe the spatial evolution of quantised modes along a TWPA. We calculate the restriction placed on pump amplitude as well as amplifier gain as a result of impedance mismatch between a TWPA and its external system. We apply our analysis to upper idler modes and demonstrate that they will result in suppressed gain. We show that an ideal TWPA is indeed quantum-limited – i.e. it introduces a half-quantum of zero-point fluctuation which is the minimum possible noise contribution for a phase-preserving linear amplifier. We analyse the thermal noise associated with a TWPA by considering the effect of distributed sources along an amplifier transmission line. Our analysis predicts a doubling of thermal noise in the high gain limit as a result of wave-mixing between signal and idler modes. We study the operation of a TWPA in the presence of a DC bias current, and have shown that highly squeezed states can in principle be generated. However, amplifying a pre-squeezed state using a non-degenerate TWPA generally reduces the squeezing advantage.
12
Apr
2021
Experimental high-dimensional Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger entanglement with superconducting transmon qutrits
Multipartite entanglement is one of the core concepts in quantum information science with broad applications that span from condensed matter physics to quantum physics foundations tests.
Although its most studied and tested forms encompass two-dimensional systems, current quantum platforms technically allow the manipulation of additional quantum levels. We report the first experimental demonstration of a high-dimensional multipartite entangled state in a superconducting quantum processor. We generate the three-qutrit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state by designing the necessary pulses to perform high-dimensional quantum operations. We obtain the fidelity of 78±1%, proving the generation of a genuine three-partite and three-dimensional entangled state. To this date, only photonic devices have been able to create and manipulate these high-dimensional states. Our work demonstrates that another platform, superconducting systems, is ready to exploit high-dimensional physics phenomena and that a programmable quantum device accessed on the cloud can be used to design and execute experiments beyond binary quantum computation.
Resolving catastrophic error bursts from cosmic rays in large arrays of superconducting qubits
Scalable quantum computing can become a reality with error correction, provided coherent qubits can be constructed in large arrays. The key premise is that physical errors can remain
both small and sufficiently uncorrelated as devices scale, so that logical error rates can be exponentially suppressed. However, energetic impacts from cosmic rays and latent radioactivity violate both of these assumptions. An impinging particle ionizes the substrate, radiating high energy phonons that induce a burst of quasiparticles, destroying qubit coherence throughout the device. High-energy radiation has been identified as a source of error in pilot superconducting quantum devices, but lacking a measurement technique able to resolve a single event in detail, the effect on large scale algorithms and error correction in particular remains an open question. Elucidating the physics involved requires operating large numbers of qubits at the same rapid timescales as in error correction, exposing the event’s evolution in time and spread in space. Here, we directly observe high-energy rays impacting a large-scale quantum processor. We introduce a rapid space and time-multiplexed measurement method and identify large bursts of quasiparticles that simultaneously and severely limit the energy coherence of all qubits, causing chip-wide failure. We track the events from their initial localised impact to high error rates across the chip. Our results provide direct insights into the scale and dynamics of these damaging error bursts in large-scale devices, and highlight the necessity of mitigation to enable quantum computing to scale.
06
Apr
2021
Suppressing Coherent Two-Qubit Errors via Dynamical Decoupling
Scalable quantum information processing requires the ability to tune multi-qubit interactions. This makes the precise manipulation of quantum states particularly difficult for multi-qubit
interactions because tunability unavoidably introduces sensitivity to fluctuations in the tuned parameters, leading to erroneous multi-qubit gate operations. The performance of quantum algorithms may be severely compromised by coherent multi-qubit errors. It is therefore imperative to understand how these fluctuations affect multi-qubit interactions and, more importantly, to mitigate their influence. In this study, we demonstrate how to implement dynamical-decoupling techniques to suppress the two-qubit analogue of the dephasing on a superconducting quantum device featuring a compact tunable coupler, a trending technology that enables the fast manipulation of qubit–qubit interactions. The pure-dephasing time shows an up to ~14 times enhancement on average when using robust sequences. The results are in good agreement with the noise generated from room-temperature circuits. Our study further reveals the decohering processes associated with tunable couplers and establishes a framework to develop gates and sequences robust against two-qubit errors.
04
Apr
2021
Optimal design of a superconducting transmon qubit with tapered wiring
Analytical formulas are presented for simplified but useful qubit geometries that predict surface dielectric loss when its thickness is much less than the metal thickness, the limiting
case needed for real devices. These formulas can thus be used to precisely predict loss and optimize the qubit layout. Surprisingly, a significant fraction of surface loss comes from the small wire that connects the Josephson junction to the qubit capacitor. Tapering this wire is shown to significantly lower its loss. Also predicted are the size and density of the two-level state (TLS) spectrum from individual surface dissipation sites.
31
Mä
2021
Engineering dissipation with resistive elements in circuit quantum electrodynamics
The importance of dissipation engineering ranges from universal quantum computation to non-equilibrium quantum thermodynamics. In recent years, more and more theoretical and experimental
studies have shown the relevance of this topic for circuit quantum electrodynamics, one of the major platforms in the race for a quantum computer. This article discusses how to simulate thermal baths by inserting resistive elements in networks of superconducting qubits. Apart from pedagogically reviewing the phenomenological and microscopic models of a resistor as thermal bath with Johnson-Nyquist noise, the paper introduces some new results in the weak coupling limit, showing that the most common examples of open quantum systems can be simulated through capacitively coupled superconducting qubits and resistors. The aim of the manuscript, written with a broad audience in mind, is to be both an instructive tutorial about how to derive and characterize the Hamiltonian of general dissipative superconducting circuits with capacitive coupling, and a review of the most relevant and topical theoretical and experimental works focused on resistive elements and dissipation engineering.
29
Mä
2021
Superconducting Circuit Architecture for Digital-Analog Quantum Computing
We propose a superconducting circuit architecture suitable for digital-analog quantum computing (DAQC) based on an enhanced NISQ family of nearest-neighbor interactions. DAQC makesa smart use of digital steps (single qubit rotations) and analog blocks (parametrized multiqubit operations) to outperform digital quantum computing algorithms. Our design comprises a chain of superconducting charge qubits coupled by superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). Using magnetic flux control, we can activate/deactivate exchange interactions, double excitation/de-excitations, and others. As a paradigmatic example, we present an efficient simulation of an ℓ×h fermion lattice (with 2<ℓ≤h), using only 2(2ℓ+1)2+24 analog blocks. The proposed architecture design is feasible in current experimental setups for quantum computing with superconducting circuits, opening the door to useful quantum advantage with fewer resources.[/expand]
26
Mä
2021
Epitaxial Superconductor-Semiconductor Two-Dimensional Systems for Superconducting Quantum Circuits
Qubits on solid state devices could potentially provide the rapid control necessary for developing scalable quantum information processors. Materials innovation and design breakthroughs
have increased functionality and coherence of qubits substantially over the past two decades. Here we show by improving interface between InAs as a semiconductor and Al as a superconductor, one can reliably fabricate voltage-controlled Josephson junction field effect transistor (JJ-FET) that can be used as tunable qubits, resonators, and coupler switches. We find that band gap engineering is crucial in realizing a two-dimensional electron gas near the surface. In addition, we show how the coupling between the semiconductor layer and the superconducting contacts can affect qubit properties. We present the anharmonicity and coupling strengths from one and two-photon absorption in a quantum two level system fabricated with a JJ-FET.
Large Microwave Inductance of Granular Boron-Doped Diamond Superconducting Films
Boron-doped diamond granular thin films are known to exhibit superconductivity with an optimal critical temperature of Tc = 7.2K. Here we report the measured complex surface impedance
of Boron-doped diamond films in the microwave frequency range using a resonant technique. Experimentally measured inductance values are in good agreement with estimates obtained from the normal state sheet resistance of the material. The magnetic penetration depth temperature dependence is consistent with that of a fully-gapped s-wave superconductor. Boron-doped diamond films should find application where high kinetic inductance is needed, such as microwave kinetic inductance detectors and quantum impedance devices.
25
Mä
2021
Tomography in the presence of stray inter-qubit coupling
Tomography is an indispensable part of quantum computation as it enables diagnosis of a quantum process through state reconstruction. Existing tomographic protocols are based on determining
expectation values of various Pauli operators which typically require single-qubit rotations. However, in realistic systems, qubits often develop some form of unavoidable stray coupling making it difficult to manipulate one qubit independent of its partners. Consequently, standard protocols applied to those systems result in unfaithful reproduction of the true quantum state. We have developed a protocol, called coupling compensated tomography, that can correct for errors due to parasitic couplings completely in software and accurately determine the quantum state. We demonstrate the performance of our scheme on a system of two transmon qubits with always-on ZZ coupling. Our technique is a generic tomography tool that can be applied to large systems with different types of stray inter-qubit couplings and facilitates the use of arbitrary tomography pulses and even non-orthogonal axes of rotation.