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
12
Dez
2014
Stückelberg interference in a superconducting qubit under periodic latching modulation
When the transition frequency of a qubit is modulated periodically across an avoided crossing along its energy dispersion curve, tunnelling to the excited state – and consequently
Landau-Zener-St\“uckelberg interference – can occur. The types of modulation studied so far correspond to a continuous evolution of the system along the dispersion curve. Here we introduce a type of modulation called periodic latching, in which the qubit’s free phase evolution is interrupted by sudden switches in the transition frequency. In this case, the conventional Landau-Zener-St\“uckelberg theory becomes inadequate and we develop a novel adiabatic-impulse model for the evolution of the system. We derive the resonance conditions and we identify two regimes: a slow-modulation regime and a fast-modulation regime, in which case the rotating wave approximation (RWA) can be applied to obtain analytical results. The adiabatic-impulse model and the RWA results are compared with those of a full numerical simulation. These theoretical predictions are tested in an experimental setup consisting of a transmon whose flux bias is modulated with a square wave form. A rich spectrum with distinctive features in the slow-modulation and fast-modulation (RWA) regimes is observed and shown to be in very good agreement with the theoretical models. Also, differences with respect to the well known case of sinusoidal modulation are discussed, both theoretically and experimentally.
10
Dez
2014
Simulating dynamical quantum Hall effect with superconducting qubits
We propose an experimental scheme to simulate the dynamical quantum Hall effect and the related interaction-induced topological transition with a superconducting-qubit array. We show
that a one-dimensional Heisenberg model with tunable parameters can be realized in an array of superconducting qubits. The quantized plateaus, which is a feature of the dynamical quantum Hall effect, will emerge in the Berry curvature of the superconducting qubits as a function of the coupling strength between nearest neighbor qubits. We numerically calculate the Berry curvatures of two-, four- and six-qubit arrays, and find that the interaction-induced topological transition can be easily observed with the simplest two-qubit array. Furthermore, we analyze some practical conditions in typical experiments for observing such dynamical quantum Hall effect
09
Dez
2014
Holonomic Quantum Computation via Adiabatic Shortcut
Fast quantum gates based on geometric phases provide a platform for performing robust quantum computation. In particular, non-adiabatic holonomic quantum computation, which involves
non-Abelian geometric phases to achieve universality, has recently been demonstrated in several experiments. Here, we generalize the transitionless quantum driving algorithm to a degenerate Hilbert space, with which we propose a route towards fast holonomic quantum computation. We propose a proof-of-principle experiment in a superconducting circuit architecture to realize our scheme.
08
Dez
2014
Thermal and Residual Excited-State Population in a 3D Transmon Qubit
We present a systematic study of the first excited-state population in a 3D transmon qubit mounted in a dilution refrigerator with a variable temperature. Using a modified version of
the protocol developed by Geerlings et al. [1], we observe the excited-state population to be consistent with a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, i.e., a qubit in thermal equilibrium with the refrigerator, over the temperature range 35-150 mK. Below 35 mK, the excited-state population saturates to 0.1%, near the resolution of our measurement. We verified this result using a flux qubit with ten-times stronger coupling to its readout resonator. We conclude that these qubits have effective temperature T_{eff} = 35 mK. Assuming T_{eff} is due solely to hot quasiparticles, the inferred qubit lifetime is 108 us and in plausible agreement with the measured 80 us.
07
Dez
2014
Observation of Dicke Superradiance for Two Artificial Atoms in a Cavity with High Decay Rate
An individual excited two level system decays to its ground state by emitting a single photon in a process known as spontaneous emission. In accordance with quantum theory the probability
of detecting the emitted photon decreases exponentially with the time passed since the excitation of the two level system. In 1954 Dicke first considered the more subtle situation in which two emitters decay in close proximity to each other. He argued that the emission dynamics of a single two level system is altered by the presence of a second one, even if it is in its ground state. Here, we present a close to ideal realization of Dicke’s original two-spin Gedankenexperiment, using a system of two individually controllable superconducting qubits weakly coupled to a microwave cavity with a fast decay rate. The two-emitter case of superradiance is explicitly demonstrated both in time-resolved measurements of the emitted power and by fully reconstructing the density matrix of the emitted field in the photon number basis.
Simulation and Analysis of Superconducting Traveling-Wave Parametric Amplifiers
Superconducting parametric amplifiers have great promise for quantum-limited readout of superconducting qubits and detectors. Until recently, most superconducting parametric amplifiers
had been based on resonant structures, limiting their bandwidth and dynamic range. Broadband traveling-wave parametric amplifiers based both on the nonlinear kinetic inductance of superconducting thin films and on Josephson junctions are in development. By modifying the dispersion property of the amplifier circuit, referred to as dispersion engineering, the gain can be greatly enhanced and the size can be reduced. We present two theoretical frameworks for analyzing and understanding such parametric amplifiers: (1) generalized coupled-mode equations and (2) a finite difference time domain (FDTD) model combined with a small signal analysis. We show how these analytical and numerical tools may be used to understand device performance.
27
Nov
2014
Precise Time Evolution of Superconductive Phase Qubits
New procedure on precise analysis of superconducting phase qubits using the concept of Feynman path integral in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory has been introduced. The wave
function and imaginary part of the energy of the pseudo ground state of the Hamiltonian in phase qubits has been obtained from semi classical approximation and we we estimate decay rate, and thus the life time of meta stable using the approach of Instanton model. We devote the main effort to study the evolution of spectrum of Hamiltonian in time after addition of interaction Hamiltonian, in order to obtain the high fidelity quantum gates.
26
Nov
2014
State preservation by repetitive error detection in a superconducting quantum circuit
Quantum computing becomes viable when a quantum state can be preserved from environmentally-induced error. If quantum bits (qubits) are sufficiently reliable, errors are sparse and
quantum error correction (QEC) is capable of identifying and correcting them. Adding more qubits improves the preservation by guaranteeing increasingly larger clusters of errors will not cause logical failure – a key requirement for large-scale systems. Using QEC to extend the qubit lifetime remains one of the outstanding experimental challenges in quantum computing. Here, we report the protection of classical states from environmental bit-flip errors and demonstrate the suppression of these errors with increasing system size. We use a linear array of nine qubits, which is a natural precursor of the two-dimensional surface code QEC scheme, and track errors as they occur by repeatedly performing projective quantum non-demolition (QND) parity measurements. Relative to a single physical qubit, we reduce the failure rate in retrieving an input state by a factor of 2.7 for five qubits and a factor of 8.5 for nine qubits after eight cycles. Additionally, we tomographically verify preservation of the non-classical Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state. The successful suppression of environmentally-induced errors strongly motivates further research into the many exciting challenges associated with building a large-scale superconducting quantum computer.
Fate of False Vacuum in Superconducting Flux Qubits
We propose a similarity between the scenario of fate of false vacuum in cosmology at early universe and the situation in where the quantum state decays in superconducting Flux qubit.
This is due to the fact that both cases have two homogeneous stable equilibrium states in scalar field, which in quantum theory, could penetrate through the barrier in different possibilities and hence considered unstable decaying in time. In quantum computation, decay rate is among the most important factors in characteristics of the system like coherency, reliability, measurement fidelity, etc. In this considered potential, the decay rate from the penetrating (False vacuum) state to the stable (absolute minimum) state is achieved to leading order in Planck constant by the approach of Instanton model. In case of the superconducting flux qubit having thin barrier potential, the decay rate is calculated and its relations with actual set of parameters in flux qubit design are introduced.
Driven Spin-Boson Luttinger Liquids
We introduce a lattice model of interacting spins and bosons that leads to Luttinger-liquid physics, and allows for quantitative tests of the theory of bosonization by means of trapped-ion
or superconducting-circuit experiments. By using a variational bosonization ansatz, we calculate the power-law decay of spin and boson correlation functions, and study their dependence on a single tunable parameter, namely a bosonic driving. For small drivings, Matrix-Product-States (MPS) numerical methods are shown to be efficient and validate our ansatz. Conversely, even static MPS become inefficient for large-driving regimes, such that the experiment can potentially outperform classical numerics, achieving one of the goals of quantum simulations.