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
Okt
2017
On-Chip Cooling by Heating with Superconducting Tunnel Junctions
Heat management and refrigeration are key concepts for nanoscale devices operating at cryogenic temperatures. The design of an on-chip mesoscopic refrigerator that works thanks to the
input heat is presented, thus realizing a solid state implementation of the concept of cooling by heating. The system consists of a circuit featuring a thermoelectric element based on a ferromagnetic insulator-superconductor tunnel junction (N-FI-S) and a series of two normal metal-superconductor tunnel junctions (SINIS). The N-FI-S element converts the incoming heat in a thermovoltage, which is applied to the SINIS, thereby yielding cooling. The cooler’s performance is investigated as a function of the input heat current for different bath temperatures. We show that this system can efficiently employ the performance of SINIS refrigeration, with a substantial cooling of the normal metal island. Its scalability and simplicity in the design makes it a promising building block for low-temperature on-chip energy management applications.
09
Okt
2017
Schrodinger Cat States in Circuit QED
Circuit quantum electrodynamics (‚circuit QED‘) describes the quantum mechanics and quantum field theory of superconducting electrical circuits operating in the microwave
regime near absolute zero temperature. It is the analog of cavity QED in quantum optics with the role of the atoms being played by superconducting qubits. The present lecture notes focus primarily on novel quantum states that can be produced and measured using the strong coupling between an artificial atom and one or more cavities. Of particular importance are Schrodinger cat states of photons. Despite long being considered exemplars of frail quantum superpositions that quickly decohere, such states have recently been used as the basis for quantum error correction codes which have reached the long-sought goal of enhancing the lifetime of quantum information through active quantum error correction.
Implementing universal nonadiabatic holonomic quantum gates with transmons
Geometric phases are well known to be noise-resilient in quantum evolutions/operations. Holonomic quantum gates provide us with a robust way towards universal quantum computation, as
these quantum gates are actually induced by nonabelian geometric phases. Here we propose and elaborate how to efficiently implement universal nonadiabatic holonomic quantum gates on simpler superconducting circuits, with a single transmon serving as a qubit. In our proposal, an arbitrary single-qubit holonomic gate can be realized in a single-loop scenario, by varying the amplitudes and phase difference of two microwave fields resonantly coupled to a transmon, while nontrivial two-qubit holonomic gates may be generated with a transmission-line resonator being simultaneously coupled to the two target transmons in an effective resonant way. Moreover, our scenario may readily be scaled up to a two-dimensional lattice configuration, which is able to support large scalable quantum computation, paving the way for practically implementing universal nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation with superconducting circuits.
08
Okt
2017
Multi-Path Interferometric Josephson Directional Amplifier for Qubit Readout
We realize and characterize a quantum-limited, directional Josephson amplifier suitable for qubit readout. The device consists of two nondegenerate, three-wave-mixing amplifiers that
are coupled together in an interferometric scheme, embedded in a printed circuit board. Nonreciprocity is generated by applying a phase gradient between the same-frequency pumps feeding the device, which plays the role of the magnetic field in a Faraday medium. Directional amplification and reflection-gain elimination are induced via wave interference between multiple paths in the system. We measure and discuss the main figures of merit of the device and show that the experimental results are in good agreement with theory. An improved version of this directional amplifier is expected to eliminate the need for bulky, off-chip isolation stages that generally separate quantum systems and preamplifiers in high-fidelity, quantum-nondemolition measurement setups.
03
Okt
2017
Quantum optimization using variational algorithms on near-term quantum devices
Universal fault-tolerant quantum computers will require error-free execution of long sequences of quantum gate operations, which is expected to involve millions of physical qubits.
Before the full power of such machines will be available, near-term quantum devices will provide several hundred qubits and limited error correction. Still, there is a realistic prospect to run useful algorithms within the limited circuit depth of such devices. Particularly promising are optimization algorithms that follow a hybrid approach: the aim is to steer a highly entangled state on a quantum system to a target state that minimizes a cost function via variation of some gate parameters. This variational approach can be used both for classical optimization problems as well as for problems in quantum chemistry. The challenge is to converge to the target state given the limited coherence time and connectivity of the qubits. In this context, the quantum volume as a metric to compare the power of near-term quantum devices is discussed.
With focus on chemistry applications, a general description of variational algorithms is provided and the mapping from fermions to qubits is explained. Coupled-cluster and heuristic trial wave-functions are considered for efficiently finding molecular ground states. Furthermore, simple error-mitigation schemes are introduced that could improve the accuracy of determining ground-state energies. Advancing these techniques may lead to near-term demonstrations of useful quantum computation with systems containing several hundred qubits.
02
Okt
2017
Qubit-assisted transduction for a detection of surface acoustic waves near the quantum limit
We demonstrate ultra-sensitive measurement of fluctuations in a surface-acoustic-wave~(SAW) resonator using a hybrid quantum system consisting of the SAW resonator, a microwave (MW)
resonator and a superconducting qubit. The nonlinearity of the driven qubit induces parametric coupling, which up-converts the excitation in the SAW resonator to that in the MW resonator. Thermal fluctuations of the SAW resonator near the quantum limit are observed in the noise spectroscopy in the MW domain.
28
Sep
2017
Analysis and mitigation of interface losses in trenched superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators
Improving the performance of superconducting qubits and resonators generally results from a combination of materials and fabrication process improvements and design modifications that
reduce device sensitivity to residual losses. One instance of this approach is to use trenching into the device substrate in combination with superconductors and dielectrics with low intrinsic losses to improve quality factors and coherence times. Here we demonstrate titanium nitride coplanar waveguide resonators with mean quality factors exceeding two million and controlled trenching reaching 2.2 μm into the silicon substrate. Additionally, we measure sets of resonators with a range of sizes and trench depths and compare these results with finite-element simulations to demonstrate quantitative agreement with a model of interface dielectric loss. We then apply this analysis to determine the extent to which trenching can improve resonator performance.
A passive on-chip, superconducting circulator using rings of tunnel junctions
We present the design of a passive, on-chip microwave circulator based on a ring of superconducting tunnel junctions. We investigate two distinct physical realisations, based on either
Josephson junctions (JJ) or quantum phase slip elements (QPS), with microwave ports coupled either capacitively (JJ) or inductively (QPS) to the ring structure. A constant bias applied to the center of the ring provides the symmetry breaking (effective) magnetic field, and no microwave or rf bias is required. We find that this design offers high isolation even when taking into account fabrication imperfections and environmentally induced bias perturbations and find a bandwidth in excess of 500 MHz for realistic device parameters.
Spin-1 models in the ultrastrong coupling regime of circuit QED
We propose a superconducting circuit platform for simulating spin-1 models. To this purpose we consider a chain of N ultrastrongly coupled qubit-resonator systems interacting through
a grounded SQUID. The anharmonic spectrum of the qubit-resonator system and the selection rules imposed by the global parity symmetry allow us to activate well controlled two-body quantum gates via AC-pulses applied to the SQUID. We show that our proposal has the same simulation time for any number of spin-1 interacting particles. This scheme may be implemented within the state-of-the-art circuit QED in the ultrastrong coupling regime.
27
Sep
2017
Hybrid rf SQUID qubit based on high kinetic inductance
We report development and microwave characterization of rf SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) qubits, consisting of an aluminium-based Josephson junction embedded in
a superconducting loop patterned from a thin film of TiN with high kinetic inductance. Here we demonstrate that the systems can offer small physical size, high anharmonicity, and small scatter of device parameters. The hybrid devices can be utilized as tools to shed further light onto the origin of film dissipation and decoherence in phase-slip nanowire qubits, patterned entirely from disordered superconducting films.