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
11
Sep
2016
Resonator reset in circuit QED by optimal control for large open quantum systems
We study an implementation of the open GRAPE (Gradient Ascent Pulse Engineering) algorithm well suited for large open quantum systems. While typical implementations of optimal control
algorithms for open quantum systems rely on a transformation to Liouville space, our implementation avoid this transformation which leads to a polynomial speed-up of the open GRAPE algorithm in cases of interest. As an example, we apply our implementation to active reset of a readout resonator in circuit QED. In this problem, the shape of a microwave pulse is optimized to steer the cavity state towards its ground state as fast as possible. Using our open GRAPE implementation, we obtain pulse shapes leading to a reset time over four times faster than typical passive reset.
08
Sep
2016
Quantum-assisted learning of graphical models with arbitrary pairwise connectivity
There is increasing interest in the potential advantages of using quantum computing technologies as sampling engines to speedup machine learning and probabilistic programming tasks.
However, some pressing challenges in state-of-the-art quantum annealers have to be overcome before we can assess their actual performance. Most notably, the effective temperature at which samples are generated is instance-dependent and unknown, the interaction graph is sparse, the parameters are noisy, and the dynamic range of the parameters is finite. Of all these limitations, the sparse connectivity resulting from the local interaction between quantum bits in physical hardware implementations, is considered the most severe limitation to the quality of constructing powerful machine learning models. Here we show how to surpass this „curse of limited connectivity“ bottleneck and illustrate our findings by training probabilistic generative models with arbitrary pairwise connectivity. Our model can be trained in quantum hardware without full knowledge of the effective parameters specifying the corresponding Boltzmann-like distribution. Therefore, inference of the effective temperature is avoided and the effect of noise in the parameters is mitigated. We illustrate our findings by successfully training hardware-embedded models with all-to-all connectivity on a real dataset of handwritten digits and two synthetic datasets. In each of these datasets we show the generative capabilities of the models learned with the assistance of the quantum annealer in experiments with up to 940 quantum bits. Additionally, we show a visual Turing test with handwritten digit data, where the machine generating the digits is a quantum processor. Such digits, with a remarkable similarity to those generated by humans, are extracted from the experiments with 940 quantum bits.
01
Sep
2016
Time-multiplexed amplification in a hybrid-less and coil-less Josephson parametric converter
Josephson parametric converters (JPCs) are superconducting devices capable of performing nondegenerate, three-wave mixing in the microwave domain without losses. One drawback limiting
their use in scalable quantum architectures is the large footprint of the auxiliary circuit needed for their operation, in particular, the use of off-chip, bulky, broadband hybrids and magnetic coils. Here, we realize a JPC which eliminates the need for these bulky components. The pump drive and flux bias are applied in the new device through an on-chip, lossless, three-port power divider and on-chip flux line, respectively. We show that the new design considerably simplifies the circuit and reduces the footprint of the device while maintaining a comparable performance to state-of-the-art JPCs. Furthermore, we exploit the tunable bandwidth property of the JPC and the added capability of applying alternating currents to the flux line in order to switch the resonance frequencies of the device, hence demonstrating time-multiplexed amplification of microwave tones that are separated by more than the dynamical bandwidth of the amplifier. Such a measurement technique can potentially serve to perform time-multiplexed, high-fidelity readout of superconducting qubits.
Non-Markovian dynamics of a superconducting qubit in an open multimode resonator
We study the dynamics of a transmon qubit that is capacitively coupled to an open multimode superconducting resonator. Our effective equations are derived by eliminating resonator degrees
of freedom while encoding their effect in the Green’s function of the electromagnetic background. We account for the dissipation of the resonator exactly by employing a spectral representation for the Green’s function in terms of a set of non-Hermitian modes and show that it is possible to derive effective Heisenberg-Langevin equations without resorting to the rotating wave, two level or Markov approximations. A well-behaved time domain perturbation theory is derived to systematically account for the nonlinearity of the transmon. We apply this method to the problem of spontaneous emission, capturing accurately the non-Markovian features of the qubit dynamics, valid for any qubit-resonator coupling strength.
31
Aug
2016
Observation of classical-quantum crossover of 1/f flux noise and its paramagnetic temperature dependence
By analyzing the dissipative dynamics of a tunable gap flux qubit, we extract both sides of its two-sided environmental flux noise spectral density over a range of frequencies around
2kBT/h≈1GHz, allowing for the observation of a classical-quantum crossover. Below the crossover point, the symmetric noise component follows a 1/f power law that matches the magnitude of the 1/f noise near 1Hz. The antisymmetric component displays a 1/T dependence below 100mK, providing dynamical evidence for a paramagnetic environment. Extrapolating the two-sided spectrum predicts the linewidth and reorganization energy of incoherent resonant tunneling between flux qubit wells.
29
Aug
2016
Digital-analog quantum simulation of generalized Dicke models with superconducting circuits
We propose a digital-analog quantum simulation of generalized Dicke models with superconducting circuits, including Fermi-Bose condensates, biased and pulsed Dicke models, for all regimes
of light-matter coupling. We encode these classes of problems in a set of superconducting qubits coupled with a bosonic mode implemented by a transmission line resonator. Via digital-analog techniques, an efficient quantum simulation can be performed in state-of-the-art circuit quantum electrodynamics platforms, by suitable decomposition into analog qubit-bosonic blocks and collective single-qubit pulses through digital steps. Moreover, just a single global analog block would be needed during the whole protocol in most of the cases, superimposed with fast periodic pulses to rotate and detune the qubits. Therefore, a large number of digital steps may be attained with this approach, providing a reduced digital error. Additionally, the number of gates per digital step does not grow with the number of qubits, rendering the simulation efficient. This strategy paves the way for the scalable digital-analog quantum simulation of many-body dynamics involving bosonic modes and spin degrees of freedom with superconducting circuits.
23
Aug
2016
Dynamics of simultaneously measured non-commuting observables
In quantum mechanics, measurement restores a classical notion of reality via collapse of the wavefunction, which yields a precisely defined outcome. On the other hand, the Heisenberg
uncertainty principle dictates that incompatible observables, such as position and momentum, cannot both take on arbitrarily precise values. But how does a wavefunction evolve when two such quantities are probed simultaneously, and how does the uncertainty principle dynamically inhibit precise measurement outcomes? To realize this unexplored regime, we simultaneously apply two continuous quantum non-demolition probes of non-commuting observables on a superconducting qubit. We achieve this capability by developing a novel measurement scheme that allows us to control the axes of multiple readout channels. We show that the uncertainty principle directly governs the dynamics of the state, and consequently standard wavefunction collapse is replaced by a persistent diffusion that exhibits several distinct regimes. Although evolution of the state now differs drastically from that of a conventional measurement, information about both non-commuting observables is extracted by keeping track of the time ordering of the measurement record, enabling quantum state tomography without alternating measurements. Our work creates new capabilities for quantum control, including rapid state purification, adaptive measurement, measurement-based state steering and continuous quantum error correction. As physical quantum systems interact with their environments via non-commuting degrees of freedom, our work offers a new, more natural approach to experimentally study contemporary quantum foundations.
22
Aug
2016
Quantum back-action evading measurement of collective mechanical modes
The standard quantum limit constrains the precision of an oscillator position measurement. It arises from a balance between the imprecision and the quantum back-action of the measurement.
However, a measurement of only a single quadrature of the oscillator can evade the back-action and be made with arbitrary precision. Here we demonstrate quantum back-action evading measurements of a collective quadrature of two mechanical oscillators, both coupled to a common microwave cavity. The work allows for quantum state tomography of two mechanical oscillators, and provides a foundation for macroscopic mechanical entanglement and force sensing beyond conventional quantum limits.
Optimization of infrared and magnetic shielding of superconducting TiN and Al coplanar microwave resonators
We present a systematic study of the effects of shielding on the internal quality factors (Qi) of Al and TiN microwave resonators designed for use in quantum coherent circuits. Measurements
were performed in an adiabatic demagnetization refrigerator, where typical magnetic fields of 200 {\mu}T are present at the unshielded sample stage. Radiation shielding consisted of 100 mK and 500 mK Cu cans coated with infrared absorbing epoxy. Magnetic shields consisted of Cryoperm 10 and Sn plating of the Cu cans. A 2.7 K radiation can and coaxial thermalization filters were present in all measurements. TiN samples with Qi = 1.3∗106 at 100 mK exhibited no significant variation in quality factor when tested with limited shielding. In contrast, Al resonators showed improved Qi with successive shielding, with the largest gains obtained from the addition of the first radiation and magnetic shields and saturating before the addition of Sn plating infrared absorbing epoxy.
18
Aug
2016
Simultaneous model selection and parameter estimation: A superconducting qubit coupled to a bath of incoherent two-level systems
In characterization of quantum systems, adapting measurement settings based on data while it is collected can generally outperform in efficiency conventional measurements that are carried
out independently of data. The existing methods for choosing measurement settings adaptively assume that the model, or the number of unknown parameters, is known. We introduce simultaneous adaptive model selection and parameter estimation. We apply our technique for characterization of a superconducting qubit and a bath of incoherent two-level systems, a leading decoherence mechanism in the state-of-the-art superconducting qubits.