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
06
Mrz
2024
High-Impedance Microwave Resonators with Two-Photon Nonlinear Effects
In this article, we present an experimental study of a Josephson junction -based high-impedance resonator. By taking the resonator to the limit of consisting effectively only of one
junction, results in strong non-linear effects already for the second photon while maintaining a high impedance of the resonance mode. Our experiment yields thus resonators with the strong interactions both between individual resonator photons and from the resonator photons to other electric quantum systems. We also present an energy diagram technique which enables to measure, identify and analyse different multi-photon optics processes along their energy conservation lines.
05
Mrz
2024
Quasiparticle effects in magnetic-field-resilient 3D transmons
Recent research shows that quasiparticle-induced decoherence of superconducting qubits depends on the superconducting-gap asymmetry originating from the different thicknesses of the
top and bottom films in Al/AlOx/Al junctions. Magnetic field is a key tuning knob to investigate this dependence as it can change the superconducting gaps in situ. We present measurements of the parity-switching time of a field-resilient 3D transmon with in-plane field up to 0.41T. At low fields, small parity splitting requires qutrit pulse sequences for parity measurements. We measure a non-monotonic evolution of the parity lifetime with in-plane magnetic field, increasing up to 0.2T, followed by a decrease at higher fields. We demonstrate that the superconducting-gap asymmetry plays a crucial role in the observed behavior. At zero field, the qubit frequency is nearly resonant with the superconducting-gap difference, favoring the energy exchange with the quasiparticles and so enhancing the parity-switching rate. With a higher magnetic field, the qubit frequency decreases and gets detuned from the gap difference, causing the initial increase of the parity lifetime, while photon-assisted qubit transitions increase, producing the subsequent decrease at higher fields. Besides giving a deeper insight into the parity-switching mechanism in conventional transmon qubits, we establish that Al-AlOx-Al JJs could be used in architectures for the parity-readout and manipulation of topological qubits based on Majorana zero modes.
Quantum refrigeration powered by noise in a superconducting circuit
While dephasing noise frequently presents obstacles for quantum devices, it can become an asset in the context of a Brownian-type quantum refrigerator. Here we demonstrate a novel quantum
thermal machine that leverages noise-assisted quantum transport to fuel a cooling engine in steady state. The device exploits symmetry-selective couplings between a superconducting artificial molecule and two microwave waveguides. These waveguides act as thermal reservoirs of different temperatures, which we regulate by employing synthesized thermal fields. We inject dephasing noise through a third channel that is longitudinally coupled to an artificial atom of the molecule. By varying the relative temperatures of the reservoirs, and measuring heat currents with a resolution below 1 aW, we demonstrate that the device can be operated as a quantum heat engine, thermal accelerator, and refrigerator. Our findings open new avenues for investigating quantum thermodynamics using superconducting quantum machines coupled to thermal microwave waveguides.
04
Mrz
2024
Wafer-scale uniformity improvement of Dolan-bridge Josephson junctions by optimization of shadow evaporation technique
One of the practical limitations of solid-state quantum computer manufacturing is the low reproducibility of the superconducting qubits resonance frequency. It makes hard demands on
the Josephson junction fabrication process, producing a nonlinear inductance of the qubit. In this work, we demonstrate for 100 mm wafer decreasing of the room temperature resistance variation coefficient to 6.0% for 150×170 nm2 Al/AlOx/Al Josephson junction area and to 4.0% for 150×670 nm2 Al/AlOx/Al Josephson junction area. These results were achieved by the development of the shadow evaporation process model considering the Josephson junction area variation on the wafer. Our model allows us to provide the junction area variation coefficient of about 1.0% for Josephson junction characteristic dimensions from 100 nm to 700 nm. In addition, we show the junction oxidation technic optimization. Our improvements can be scalable on the wafer with a large diameter, which allows to manufacturing of the quantum processor with high reproducibility of electrical parameters.
Recovering quantum coherence of a cavity qubit through environment monitoring and active feedback
Decoherence in qubits, caused by their interaction with a noisy environment, poses a significant challenge to developing reliable quantum processors. Monitoring the qubit’s environment
enables not only to flag decoherence events but also to reverse these errors, thereby restoring the qubit coherence. This approach is particularly beneficial for superconducting cavity qubits, whose unavoidable interaction with auxiliary transmons impacts their coherence. In this work, we uncover the intricate dynamics of cavity qubit decoherence by tracking the noisy trajectory of a transmon acting as the cavity’s environment. Using real-time feedback, we successfully recover the lost coherence of the cavity qubit, achieving a fivefold increase in its dephasing time. Alternatively, by detecting transmon errors and converting them into erasures, we improve the cavity phase coherence by more than an order of magnitude. These advances are essential for using cavity qubits with low photon loss rates as long-lived quantum memories with high-fidelity gates and can enable more efficient bosonic quantum error correction codes.
Aluminum Josephson junction microstructure and electrical properties modification with thermal annealing
Superconducting qubits based on Al/AlOx/Al Josephson junction are one of the most promising candidates for the physical implementation of universal quantum computers. Due to scalability
and compatibility with the state-of-the-art nanoelectronic processes one can fabricate hundreds of qubits on a single silicon chip. However, decoherence in these systems caused by two-level-systems in amorphous dielectrics, including a tunneling barrier AlOx, is one of the major problems. We report on a Josephson junction thermal annealing process development to crystallize an amorphous barrier oxide (AlOx). The dependences of the thermal annealing parameters on the room temperature resistance are obtained. The developed method allows not only to increase the Josephson junction resistance by 175%, but also to decrease by 60% with precisions of 10% in Rn. Finally, theoretical assumptions about the structure modification in tunnel barrier are proposed. The suggested thermal annealing approach can be used to form a stable and reproducible tunneling barriers and scalable frequency trimming for a widely used fixed-frequency transmon qubits.
Parametric multi-element coupling architecture for coherent and dissipative control of superconducting qubits
As systems for quantum computing keep growing in size and number of qubits, challenges in scaling the control capabilities are becoming increasingly relevant. Efficient schemes to simultaneously
mediate coherent interactions between multiple quantum systems and to reduce decoherence errors can minimize the control overhead in next-generation quantum processors. Here, we present a superconducting qubit architecture based on tunable parametric interactions to perform two-qubit gates, reset, leakage recovery and to read out the qubits. In this architecture, parametrically driven multi-element couplers selectively couple qubits to resonators and neighbouring qubits, according to the frequency of the drive. We consider a system with two qubits and one readout resonator interacting via a single coupling circuit and experimentally demonstrate a controlled-Z gate with a fidelity of 98.30±0.23%, a reset operation that unconditionally prepares the qubit ground state with a fidelity of 99.80±0.02% and a leakage recovery operation with a 98.5±0.3% success probability. Furthermore, we implement a parametric readout with a single-shot assignment fidelity of 88.0±0.4%. These operations are all realized using a single tunable coupler, demonstrating the experimental feasibility of the proposed architecture and its potential for reducing the system complexity in scalable quantum processors.
Strategies and trade-offs for controllability and memory time of ultra-high-quality microwave cavities in circuit QED
Three-dimensional microwave cavity resonators have been shown to reach lifetimes of the order of a second by maximizing the cavity volume relative to its surface, using better materials,
and improving surface treatments. Such cavities represent an ideal platform for quantum computing with bosonic qubits, but their efficient control remains an outstanding problem since the large mode volume results in inefficient coupling to nonlinear elements used for their control. Moreover, this coupling induces additional cavity decay via the inverse Purcell effect which can easily destroy the advantage of {a} long intrinsic lifetime. Here, we discuss conditions on, and protocols for, efficient utilization of these ultra-high-quality microwave cavities as memories for conventional superconducting qubits. We show that, surprisingly, efficient write and read operations with ultra-high-quality cavities does not require similar quality factors for the qubits and other nonlinear elements used to control them. Through a combination of analytical and numerical calculations, we demonstrate that efficient coupling to cavities with second-scale lifetime is possible with state-of-the-art transmon and SNAIL devices and outline a route towards controlling cavities with even higher quality factors. Our work explores a potentially viable roadmap towards using ultra-high-quality microwave cavity resonators for storing and processing information encoded in bosonic qubits.
Near-ground state cooling in electromechanics using measurement-based feedback and Josephson parametric amplifier
Feedback-based control of nano- and micromechanical resonators can enable the study of macroscopic quantum phenomena and also sensitive force measurements. Here, we demonstrate the
feedback cooling of a low-loss and high-stress macroscopic SiN membrane resonator close to its quantum ground state. We use the microwave optomechanical platform, where the resonator is coupled to a microwave cavity. The experiment utilizes a Josephson travelling wave parametric amplifier, which is nearly quantum-limited in added noise, and is important to mitigate resonator heating due to system noise in the feedback loop. We reach a thermal phonon number as low as 1.6, which is limited primarily by microwave-induced heating. We also discuss the sideband asymmetry observed when a weak microwave tone for independent readout is applied in addition to other tones used for the cooling. The asymmetry can be qualitatively attributed to the quantum-mechanical imbalance between emission and absorption. However, we find that the observed asymmetry is only partially due to this quantum effect. In specific situations, the asymmetry is fully dominated by a cavity Kerr effect under multitone irradiation.
Logical Gates and Read-Out of Superconducting Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill Qubits
The Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) code is an exciting route to fault-tolerant quantum computing since Gaussian resources and GKP Pauli-eigenstate preparation are sufficient to achieve
universal quantum computing. In this work, we provide a practical proposal to perform Clifford gates and state read-out in GKP codes implemented with active error correction in superconducting circuits. We present a method of performing Clifford circuits without physically implementing any single-qubit gates, reducing the potential for them to spread errors in the system. In superconducting circuits, all the required two-qubit gates can be implemented with a single piece of hardware. We analyze the error-spreading properties of GKP Clifford gates and describe how a modification in the decoder following the implementation of each gate can reduce the gate infidelity by multiple orders of magnitude. Moreover, we develop a simple analytical technique to estimate the effect of loss and dephasing on GKP codes that matches well with numerics. Finally, we consider the effect of homodyne measurement inefficiencies on logical state read-out and present a scheme that implements a measurement with a 0.1% error rate in 630 ns assuming an efficiency of just~75%.