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
15
Nov
2019
Superadiabatic population transfer in a three-level superconducting circuit
Adiabatic manipulation of the quantum state is an essential tool in modern quantum information processing. Here we demonstrate the speed-up of the adiabatic population transfer in a
three-level superconducting transmon circuit by suppressing the spurious non-adiabatic excitations with an additional two-photon microwave pulse. We apply this superadiabatic method to the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage, realizing fast and robust population transfer from the ground state to the second excited state of the quantum circuit.
14
Nov
2019
Counting statistics of microwave photons in circuit QED
In superconducting circuit architectures for quantum computing, microwave resonators are often used both to isolate qubits from the electromagnetic environment and to facilitate qubit
state readout. We analyze the full counting statistics of photons emitted from such driven readout resonators both in and beyond the dispersive approximation. We calculate the overlap between emitted-photon distributions for the two qubit states and explore strategies for its minimization with the purpose of increasing fidelity of intensity-sensitive readout techniques. In the dispersive approximation and at negligible qubit relaxation, both distributions are Poissonian, and the overlap between them can be easily made arbitrarily small. Nondispersive terms of the Hamiltonian generate squeezing and the Purcell decay with the latter effect giving the dominant contribution to the overlap between two distributions.
Free-standing silicon shadow masks for transmon qubit fabrication
Nanofabrication techniques for superconducting qubits rely on resist-based masks patterned by electron-beam or optical lithography. We have developed an alternative nanofabrication
technique based on free-standing silicon shadow masks fabricated from silicon-on-insulator wafers. These silicon shadow masks not only eliminate organic residues associated with resist-based lithography, but also provide a pathway to better understand and control surface-dielectric losses in superconducting qubits by decoupling mask fabrication from substrate preparation. We have successfully fabricated aluminum 3D transmon superconducting qubits with these shadow masks, and demonstrated energy relaxation times on par with state-of-the-art values.
13
Nov
2019
Flux-mediated optomechanics with a transmon qubit in the single-photon ultrastrong-coupling regime
We propose a scheme for controlling a radio-frequency mechanical resonator at the quantum level using a superconducting qubit. The mechanical part of the circuit consists of a suspended
micrometer-long beam that is embedded in the loop of a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) and is connected in parallel to a transmon qubit. Using realistic parameters from recent experiments with similar devices, we show that this configuration can enable a tuneable optomechanical interaction in the single-photon ultrastrong-coupling regime, where the radiation-pressure coupling strength is larger than both the transmon decay rate and the mechanical frequency. We investigate the dynamics of the driven system for a range of coupling strengths and find an optimum regime for ground-state cooling, consistent with previous theoretical investigations considering linear cavities. Furthermore, we numerically demonstrate a protocol for generating hybrid discrete- and continuous-variable entanglement as well as mechanical Schrödinger cat states, which can be realised within the current state of the art. Our results demonstrate the possibility of controlling the mechanical motion of massive objects using superconducting qubits at the single-photon level and could enable applications in hybrid quantum technologies as well as fundamental tests of quantum mechanics.
12
Nov
2019
A long-lived capacitively shunted flux qubit embedded in a 3D cavity
We report the experimental realization of a 3D capacitively-shunt superconducting flux qubit with long coherence times. At the optimal flux bias point, the qubit demonstrates energy
relaxation times in the 60-90 μs range, and Hahn-echo coherence time of about 80 μs which can be further improved by dynamical decoupling. Qubit energy relaxation can be attributed to quasiparticle tunneling, while qubit dephasing is caused by flux noise away from the optimal point. Our results show that 3D c-shunt flux qubits demonstrate improved performance over other types of flux qubits which is advantageous for applications such as quantum magnetometry and spin sensing.
11
Nov
2019
Low power, fast and broadband ESR quantum control using a stripline resonator
Using a home-built Ku band ESR spectrometer equipped with an arbitrary waveform generator and a stripline resonator, we implement two types of pulses that would benefit quantum computers:
BB1 composite pulse and a microwave frequency comb. Broadband type 1 (BB1) composite pulse is commonly used to combat systematic errors but previous experiments were carried out only on extremely narrow linewidth samples. Using a sample with a linewidth of 9.35 MHz, we demonstrate that BB1 composite pulse is still effective against pulse length errors at a Rabi frequency of 38.46 MHz. The fast control is realized with low microwave power which is required for initialization of electron spin qubits at 0.6 T. We also digitally design and implement a microwave frequency comb to excite multiple spin packets of a different sample. Using this pulse, we demonstrate coherent and well resolved excitations spanning over the entire spectrum of the sample (ranging from -20 to 20 MHz). In anticipation of scaling up to a system with large number of qubits, this approach provides an efficient technique to selectively and simultaneously control multiple qubits defined in the frequency-domain.
06
Nov
2019
Implementation of a transmon qubit using superconducting granular aluminum
The high kinetic inductance offered by granular aluminum (grAl) has recently been employed for linear inductors in superconducting high-impedance qubits and kinetic inductance detectors.
Due to its large critical current density compared to typical Josephson junctions, its resilience to external magnetic fields, and its low dissipation, grAl may also provide a robust source of non-linearity for strongly driven quantum circuits, topological superconductivity, and hybrid systems. Having said that, can the grAl non-linearity be sufficient to build a qubit? Here we show that a small grAl volume (10×200×500nm3) shunted by a thin film aluminum capacitor results in a microwave oscillator with anharmonicity α two orders of magnitude larger than its spectral linewidth Γ01, effectively forming a transmon qubit. With increasing drive power, we observe several multi-photon transitions starting from the ground state, from which we extract α=2π×4.48MHz. Resonance fluorescence measurements of the |0>→|1> transition yield an intrinsic qubit linewidth γ=2π×10kHz, corresponding to a lifetime of 16μs. This linewidth remains below 2π×150kHz for in-plane magnetic fields up to ∼70mT.
Microscopic charging and in-gap states in superconducting granular aluminum
Following the emergence of superconducting granular aluminum (grAl) as a material for high-impedance quantum circuits, future development hinges on a microscopic understanding of its
phase diagram, and whether the superconductor-to-insulator transition (SIT) is driven by disorder or charging effects. Beyond fundamental relevance, these mechanisms govern noise and dissipation in microwave circuits. Although the enhancement of the critical temperature, and the SIT in granular superconductors have been studied for more than fifty years, experimental studies have so far provided incomplete information on the microscopic phenomena. Here we present scanning tunneling microscope measurements of the local electronic structure of superconducting grAl. We confirm an increased superconducting gap in individual grains both near and above the Mott resistivity ρM≈400 μΩcm. Above ρM we find Coulomb charging effects, a first indication for decoupling, and in-gap states on individual grains, which could contribute to flux noise and dielectric loss in quantum devices. We also observe multiple low-energy states outside the gap, which may indicate bosonic excitations of the superconducting order parameter.
04
Nov
2019
Photon-Pressure Strong-Coupling between two Superconducting Circuits
The nonlinear, parametric coupling between two harmonic oscillators has been used in the field of optomechanics for breakthrough experiments regarding the control and detection of mechanical
resonators. Although this type of interaction is an extremely versatile resource and not limited to coupling light fields to mechanical resonators, there have only been, very few reports of implementing it within other systems so far. Here, we present a device consisting of two superconducting LC circuits, parametrically coupled to each other by a magnetic flux-tunable photon-pressure interaction. We observe dynamical backaction between the two circuits, photon-pressure-induced transparency and absorption, and enter the parametric strong-coupling regime, enabling switchable and controllable coherent state transfer between the two modes. As result of the parametric interaction, we are also able to amplify and observe thermal current fluctuations in a radio-frequency LC circuit close to its quantum ground-state. Due to the high design flexibility and precision of superconducting circuits and the large single-photon coupling rate, our approach will enable new ways to control and detect radio-frequency photons and allow for experiments in parameter regimes not accessible to other platforms with photon-pressure interaction.
Quantum thermal transistor in superconducting circuits
Logical devices based on electrical currents are ubiquitous in modern society. However, digital logic does have some drawbacks such as a relatively high power consumption. It is therefore
of great interest to seek alternative means to build logical circuits that can either work as stand-alone devices or in conjunction with more traditional electronic circuits. One direction that holds great promise is the use of heat currents for logical components. In the present paper, we discuss a recent abstract proposal for a quantum thermal transistor and provide a concrete design of such a device using superconducting circuits. Using a circuit quantum electrodynamics Jaynes-Cummings model, we propose a three-terminal device that allows heat transfer from source to drain, depending on the temperature of a bath coupled at the gate modulator, and show that it provides similar properties to a conventional semiconductor transistor.