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
20
Okt
2017
Studying Light-Harvesting Models with Superconducting Circuits
The process of photosynthesis, the main source of energy in the animate world, converts sunlight into chemical energy. The surprisingly high efficiency of this process is believed to
be enabled by an intricate interplay between the quantum nature of molecular structures in photosynthetic complexes and their interaction with the environment. Investigating these effects in biological samples is challenging due to their complex and disordered structure. Here we experimentally demonstrate a new approach for studying photosynthetic models based on superconducting quantum circuits. In particular, we demonstrate the unprecedented versatility and control of our method in an engineered three-site model of a pigment protein complex with realistic parameters scaled down in energy by a factor of 105. With this system we show that the excitation transport between quantum coherent sites disordered in energy can be enabled through the interaction with environmental noise. We also show that the efficiency of the process is maximized for structured noise resembling intramolecular phononic environments found in photosynthetic complexes.
Cross-coupling effects in circuit-QED stimulated Raman adiabatic passage
Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage is a quantum protocol that can be used for robust state preparation in a three-level system. It has been commonly employed in quantum optics, but
recently this technique has drawn attention also in circuit quantum electrodynamics. The protocol relies on two slowly varying drive pulses that couple the initial and the target state via an intermediate state, which remains unpopulated. Here we study the detrimental effect of the parasitic couplings of the drives into transitions other than those required by the protocol. The effect is most prominent in systems with almost harmonic energy level structure, such as the transmon. We show that under these conditions in the presence of decoherence there exists an optimal STIRAP amplitude for population transfer.
17
Okt
2017
Itinerant microwave photon detector
The realization of a high-efficiency microwave single photon detector is a long-standing problem in the field of microwave quantum optics. Here we propose a quantum non-demolition,
high-efficiency photon detector that can readily be implemented in present state-of-the-art circuit quantum electrodynamics. This scheme works in a continuous fashion, gaining information about the arrival time of the photon as well as about its presence. The key insight that allows to circumvent the usual limitations imposed by measurement back-action is the use of long-lived dark states in a small ensemble of inhomogeneous artificial atoms to increase the interaction time between the photon and the measurement device. Using realistic system parameters, we show that large detection fidelities are possible.
Experimental demonstration of a two-dimensional phonon cavity in the quantum regime
The quantum regime in acoustic systems is a focus of recent fundamental research in the new field of Quantum Acoustodynamics (QAD). Systems based on surface acoustic waves having an
advantage of easy integration in two-dimensions are particularly promising for the demonstration of novel effects in QAD and development of novel devices of quantum acousto-electronics. We demonstrate the vacuum mode of the surface acoustic wave resonator by coupling it to a superconducting artificial atom. The artificial atom is implemented into the resonator formed by two Brag mirrors. The results are consistent with expectations supported by the system model and our calculations. This work opens the way to map analogues of quantum optical effects into acoustic systems.
14
Okt
2017
Multi-time correlators in continuous measurement of qubit observables
We consider multi-time correlators for output signals from linear detectors, continuously measuring several qubit observables at the same time. Using the quantum Bayesian formalism,
we show that for unital (symmetric) evolution in the absence of phase backaction, an N-time correlator can be expressed as a product of two-time correlators when N is even. For odd N, there is a similar factorization, which also includes a single-time average. Theoretical predictions agree well with experimental results for two detectors, which simultaneously measure non-commuting qubit observables.
12
Okt
2017
Mitigating coherent leakage of superconducting qubits in a large-scale quantum socket
A practical quantum computer requires quantum bit (qubit) operations with low error rates in extensible architectures. We study a packaging method that makes it possible to address
hundreds of superconducting qubits by means of three-dimensional wires: The large-scale quantum socket. A qubit chip is housed in a superconducting box, where both box and chip dimensions lead to unwanted modes that can interfere with qubit operations. We theoretically analyze these interference effects in the context of qubit coherent leakage. We propose two methods to mitigate the resulting errors by detuning the resonance frequency of the modes from the qubit frequency. We perform detailed electromagnetic field simulations indicating that the resonance frequency of the modes increases with the number of installed three-dimensional wires and can be engineered to be significantly higher than the highest qubit frequency. Finally, we show preliminary experimental results towards the implementation of a large-scale quantum socket.
Quantum–Classical Interface Based on Single Flux Quantum Digital Logic
We describe an approach to the integrated control and measurement of a large-scale superconducting multiqubit circuit using a proximal coprocessor based on the Single Flux Quantum (SFQ)
digital logic family. Coherent control is realized by irradiating the qubits directly with classical bitstreams derived from optimal control theory. Qubit measurement is performed by a Josephson photon counter, which provides access to the classical result of projective quantum measurement at the millikelvin stage. We analyze the power budget and physical footprint of the SFQ coprocessor and discuss challenges and opportunities associated with this approach.
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.