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
Dez
2016
Fisher information of two superconducting charge qubits under dephasing noisy
The dynamics of a charged two-qubit system prepared initially in a maximum entangled state is discussed, where each qubit interacts independently with a dephasing channel. The Fisher
information is used to estimate the channel and the energy parameters. Moreover, the contribution from different parts of Fisher information is discussed. We show that, the degree of estimation of any parameter depends on the initial value of this parameter. It turns out that the upper bounds of Fisher information with respect to the dephasing parameter increase and that corresponding to coupling parameter decreases as the initial energy of each qubit increases.
09
Dez
2016
Quantum caustics in resonance fluorescence trajectories
We employ phase-sensitive amplification to perform homodyne detection of the resonance fluorescence from a driven superconducting artificial atom. Entanglement between the emitter and
its fluorescence allows us to track the individual quantum state trajectories of the emitter conditioned on the outcomes of the field measurements. We analyze the ensemble properties of these trajectories by considering trajectories that connect specific initial and final states. By applying the stochastic path integral formalism, we calculate equations-of-motion for the most likely path between two quantum states and compare these predicted paths to experimental data. Drawing on the mathematical similarity between the action formalism of the most likely quantum paths and ray optics we study the emergence of caustics in quantum trajectories – places where multiple extrema in the stochastic action occur. We observe such multiple most likely paths in experimental data and find these paths to be in reasonable quantitative agreement with theoretical calculations.
Is the quantum Rabi model adequate in circuit QED for any atom-resonator coupling?
In circuit quantum electrodynamics, an artificial „circuit atom“ can couple to a quantized microwave radiation much stronger than its real atomic counterpart. The celebrated
quantum Rabi model describes the simplest interaction of a two-level system with a single-mode boson field. When the coupling is arbitrary large, the bare multilevel structure of a realistic circuit atom cannot be ignored even if the circuit is strongly anharmonic. We explored this situation theoretically for flux (fluxonium) and charge (Cooper pair box) type multi-level circuit atoms at maximal frustration and identified which spectral features of the quantum Rabi model survive and which are renormalized for arbitrary large coupling. We provide a quantitative comparison with the ideal quantum Rabi model by inspecting not only the circuit energy level spectrum, but also the entanglement spectrum. Despite significant renormalization of the low-energy energy spectrum in the fluxonium case, the key quantum Rabi feature — nearly-degenerate vacuum consisting of an atomic state entangled with a multi-photon field — appears in both circuits when the coupling is sufficiently large. Like in the quantum Rabi model, for very large couplings the entanglement spectrum is dominated by only two, nearly equal eigenvalues, in spite of the fact that a large number of bare atomic states are actually involved in the ground state. We interpret the emergence of the vacuum degeneracy in both circuits as an environmental suppression of flux/charge tunneling due to their dressing by virtual low-/high-impedance photons in the resonator. For flux tunneling, the dressing is nothing else than the shunting of a Josephson atom with a large capacitance of the resonator. Suppression of charge tunneling appears to have the same origin as the dynamical Coulomb blockade of transport in tunnel junctions connected to resistive leads.
05
Dez
2016
Nonreciprocal microwave signal processing with a Field-Programmable Josephson Amplifier
We report on the design and implementation of a Field Programmable Josephson Amplifier (FPJA) – a compact and lossless superconducting circuit that can be programmed extit{in
situ} by a set of microwave drives to perform reciprocal and nonreciprocal frequency conversion and amplification. In this work we demonstrate four modes of operation: frequency conversion (−0.5 dB transmission, −30 dB reflection), circulation (−0.5 dB transmission, −30 dB reflection, 30 dB isolation), phase-preserving amplification (gain >20 dB, 1 photon of added noise) and directional phase-preserving amplification (−10 dB reflection, 18 dB forward gain, 8 dB reverse isolation, 1 photon of added noise). The system exhibits quantitative agreement with theoretical prediction. Based on a gradiometric Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) with Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions, the FPJA is first-order insensitive to flux noise and can be operated without magnetic shielding at low temperature. Due to its flexible design and compatibility with existing superconducting fabrication techniques, the FPJA offers a straightforward route toward on-chip integration with superconducting quantum circuits such as qubits or microwave optomechanical systems.
03
Dez
2016
Hybrid quantum device with a carbon nanotube and a flux qubit for dissipative quantum engineering
We describe a hybrid quantum system composed of a micrometer-size carbon nanotube (CNT) longitudinally coupled to a flux qubit. We demonstrate the usefulness of this device for generating
high-fidelity nonclassical states of the CNT via dissipative quantum engineering. Sideband cooling of the CNT to its ground state and generating a squeezed ground state, as a mechanical analogue of the optical squeezed vacuum, are two additional examples of the dissipative quantum engineering studied here. Moreover, we show how to generate a long-lived macroscopically-distinct superposition (i.e., a Schr\“odinger cat-like) state. This cat state can be trapped via dark-state methods assuming that the CNT dissipation is negligible compared to the qubit dissipation, and can be verified by detecting the optical response of control fields.
02
Dez
2016
The giant acoustic atom — a single quantum system with a deterministic time delay
We investigate the quantum dynamics of a single transmon qubit coupled to surface acoustic waves (SAWs) via two distant connection points. Since the acoustic speed is five orders of
magnitude slower than the speed of light, the travelling time between the two connection points needs to be taken into account. Therefore, we treat the transmon qubit as a giant atom with a deterministic time delay. We find that the spontaneous emission of the system, formed by the giant atom and the SAWs between its connection points, initially follows a polynomial decay law instead of an exponential one, as would be the case for a small atom. We obtain exact analytical results for the scattering properties of the giant atom up to two-phonon processes by using a diagrammatic approach. The time delay gives rise to novel features in the reflection, transmission, power spectra, and second-order correlation functions of the system. Furthermore, we find the short-time dynamics of the giant atom for arbitrary drive strength by a numerically exact method for open quantum systems with a finite-time-delay feedback loop.
Efficient Z-Gates for Quantum Computing
For superconducting qubits, microwave pulses drive rotations around the Bloch sphere. Here we show that the phase of these drives can be used to generate zero-duration arbitrary Z-gates
which, combined with two Xπ/2 gates, can generate any SU(2) gate. We perform randomized benchmarking using a Clifford set of Hadamard and Z-gates and show that the error per Clifford is reduced versus a set consisting of standard finite-duration X and Y gates. Z-gates can also correct unitary rotation errors for weakly anharmonic qubits as an alternative to pulse shaping techniques such as DRAG. We investigate leakage and show that a combination of DRAG pulse shaping to minimize leakage and Z-gates to correct rotation errors (DRAGZ) realizes a 13.3ns Xπ/2 gate characterized by low error (1.95[3]×10−4) and low leakage (3.1[6]×10−6). Ultimately leakage is limited by the finite temperature of the qubit, but this limit is two orders-of-magnitude smaller than pulse errors due to decoherence.
01
Dez
2016
Characteristic spectra of circuit quantum electrodynamics systems from the ultrastrong to the deep strong coupling regime
We report on spectra of circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) systems in an intermediate regime that lies between the ultrastrong and deep strong coupling regimes, which have been reported
previously in the literature. Our experimental results, along with numerical simulations, demonstrate that as the coupling strength increases, the spectrum of a circuit-QED system undergoes multiple qualitative transformations, such that several ranges are identified, each with its own unique spectral features. These results allow us to define characteristic features that distinguish several different regimes of coupling in circuit-QED systems.
30
Nov
2016
Simultaneous bistability of qubit and resonator in circuit quantum electrodynamics
We explore the joint activated dynamics exhibited by two quantum degrees of freedom: a cavity mode oscillator which is strongly coupled to a superconducting qubit in the strongly coherently
driven dispersive regime. Dynamical simulations and complementary measurements show a range of parameters where both the cavity and the qubit exhibit sudden simultaneous switching between two metastable states. This manifests in ensemble averaged amplitudes of both the cavity and qubit exhibiting a partial coherent cancellation. Transmission measurements of driven microwave cavities coupled to transmon qubits show detailed features which agree with the theory in the regime of simultaneous switching.
Intra-city quantum communication via thermal microwave networks
Communication over proven-secure quantum channels is potentially one of the most wide-ranging applications of currently developed quantum technologies. It is generally envisioned that
in future quantum networks, separated nodes containing stationary solid-state or atomic qubits are connected via the exchange of optical photons over large distances. In this work we explore an intriguing alternative for quantum communication via all-microwave networks. To make this possible, we describe a general protocol for sending quantum states through thermal channels, even when the number of thermal photons in the channel is much larger than one. The protocol can be implemented with state-of-the-art superconducting circuits and enables the transfer of quantum states over distances of ~100 m via microwave transmission lines cooled to only T=4K. This opens up completely new possibilities for quantum communication within and across buildings, and consequently, for the implementation of intra-city quantum networks based on microwave technology only.