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
22
Mä
2024
Theory of quasiparticle-induced errors in driven-dissipative Schrödinger cat qubits
Understanding the mechanisms of qubit decoherence is a crucial prerequisite for improving the qubit performance. In this work we discuss the effects of residual Bogolyubov quasiparticles
in Schrödinger cat qubits, either of the dissipative or Kerr type. The major difference from previous studies of quasiparticles in superconducting qubits is that the Schrödinger cat qubits are operated under non-equilibrium conditions. Indeed, an external microwave drive is needed to stabilize „cat states“, which are superpositions of coherent degenerate eigenstates of an effective stationary Lindbladian in the rotating frame. We present a microscopic derivation of the master equation for cat qubits and express the effect of the quasiparticles as dissipators acting on the density matrix of the cat qubit. This enables us to determine the conditions under which the quasiparticles give a substantial contribution to the qubit errors.
21
Mä
2024
Optimal control in large open quantum systems: the case of transmon readout and reset
We present a framework that combines the adjoint state method together with reverse-time back-propagation to solve otherwise prohibitively large open-system quantum control problems.
Our approach enables the optimization of arbitrary cost functions with fully general controls applied on large open quantum systems described by a Lindblad master equation. It is scalable, computationally efficient, and has a low memory footprint. We apply this framework to optimize two inherently dissipative operations in superconducting qubits which lag behind in terms of fidelity and duration compared to other unitary operations: the dispersive readout and all-microwave reset of a transmon qubit. Our results show that, given a fixed set of system parameters, shaping the control pulses can yield 2x improvements in the fidelity and duration for both of these operations compared to standard strategies. Our approach can readily be applied to optimize quantum controls in a vast range of applications such as reservoir engineering, autonomous quantum error correction, and leakage-reduction units.
18
Mä
2024
The effect of niobium thin film structure on losses in superconducting circuits
The performance of superconducting microwave circuits is strongly influenced by the material properties of the superconducting film and substrate. While progress has been made in understanding
the importance of surface preparation and the effect of surface oxides, the complex effect of superconductor film structure on microwave losses is not yet fully understood. In this study, we investigate the microwave properties of niobium resonators with different crystalline properties and related surface topographies. We analyze a series of magnetron sputtered films in which the Nb crystal orientation and surface topography are changed by varying the substrate temperatures between room temperature and 975 K. The lowest-loss resonators that we measure have quality factors of over one million at single-photon powers, among the best ever recorded using the Nb on sapphire platform. We observe the highest quality factors in films grown at an intermediate temperature regime of the growth series (550 K) where the films display both preferential ordering of the crystal domains and low surface roughness. Furthermore, we analyze the temperature-dependent behavior of our resonators to learn about how the quasiparticle density in the Nb film is affected by the niobium crystal structure and the presence of grain boundaries. Our results stress the connection between the crystal structure of superconducting films and the loss mechanisms suffered by the resonators and demonstrate that even a moderate change in temperature during thin film deposition can significantly affect the resulting quality factors.
Probing Site-Resolved Current in Strongly Interacting Superconducting Circuit Lattices
Transport measurements are fundamental for understanding condensed matter phenomena, from superconductivity to the fractional quantum Hall effect. Analogously, they can be powerful
tools for probing synthetic quantum matter in quantum simulators. Here we demonstrate the measurement of in-situ particle current in a superconducting circuit lattice and apply it to study transport in both coherent and bath-coupled lattices. Our method utilizes controlled tunneling in a double-well potential to map current to on-site density, revealing site-resolved current and current statistics. We prepare a strongly interacting Bose-Hubbard lattice at different lattice fillings, and observe the change in current statistics as the many-body states transition from superfluid to Mott insulator. Furthermore, we explore non-equilibrium current dynamics by coupling the lattice to engineered driven-dissipative baths that serve as tunable particle source and drain. We observe steady-state current in discrete conduction channels and interaction-assisted transport. These results establish a versatile platform to investigate microscopic quantum transport in superconducting circuits.
17
Mä
2024
Kinetic inductance traveling wave amplifier designs for practical microwave readout applications
A Kinetic Inductance Traveling Wave amplifier (KIT) utilizes the nonlinear kinetic inductance of superconducting films, particularly Niobium Titanium Nitride (NbTiN), for parametric
amplification. These amplifiers achieve remarkable performance in terms of gain, bandwidth, compression power, and frequently approach the quantum limit for noise. However, most KIT demonstrations have been isolated from practical device readout systems. Using a KIT as the first amplifier in the readout chain of an unoptimized microwave SQUID multiplexer coupled to a transition-edge sensor microcalorimeter we see an initial improvement in the flux noise. One challenge in KIT integration is the considerable microwave pump power required to drive the non-linearity. To address this, we have initiated efforts to reduce the pump power by using thinner NbTiN films and an inverted microstrip transmission line design. In this article, we present the new transmission line design, fabrication procedure, and initial device characterization — including gain and added noise. These devices exhibit over 10 dB of gain with a 3 dB bandwidth of approximately 5.5-7.25 GHz, a maximum practical gain of 12 dB and typical gain ripple under 4 dB peak-to-peak. We observe an appreciable impedance mismatch in the NbTiN transmission line, which is likely the source of the majority of the gain ripple. Finally we perform an initial noise characterization and demonstrate system-added noise of three quanta or less over nearly the entire 3 dB bandwidth.
Dynamics and Resonance Fluorescence from a Superconducting Artificial Atom Doubly Driven by Quantized and Classical Fields
We report an experimental demonstration of resonance fluorescence in a two-level superconducting artificial atom under two driving fields coupled to a detuned cavity. One of the fields
is classical and the other is varied from quantum (vacuum fluctuations) to classical one by controlling the photon number inside the cavity. The device consists of a transmon qubit strongly coupled to a one-dimensional transmission line and a coplanar waveguide resonator. We observe a sideband anti-crossing and asymmetry in the emission spectra of the system through a one-dimensional transmission line, which is fundamentally different from the weak coupling case. By changing the photon number inside the cavity, the emission spectrum of our doubly driven system approaches to the case when the atom is driven by two classical bichromatic fields. We also measure the dynamical evolution of the system through the transmission line and study the properties of the first-order correlation function, Rabi oscillations and energy relaxation in the system. The study of resonance fluorescence from an atom driven by two fields promotes understanding decoherence in superconducting quantum circuits and may find applications in superconducting quantum computing and quantum networks.
14
Mä
2024
Engineering nonequilibrium steady states through Floquet Liouvillians
We experimentally study the transient dynamics of a dissipative superconducting qubit under periodic drive towards its nonequilibrium steady states. The corresponding stroboscopic evolution,
given by the qubit states at times equal to integer multiples of the drive period, is determined by a (generically non-Hermitian) Floquet Liouvillian. The drive period controls both the transients across its non-Hermitian degeneracies and the resulting nonequilibrium steady states. These steady states can exhibit higher purity compared to those achieved with a constant drive. We further study the dependence of the steady states on the direction of parameter variation and relate these findings to the recent studies of dynamically encircling exceptional points. Our work provides a new approach to control non-Hermiticity in dissipative quantum systems and presents a new paradigm in quantum state preparation and stabilization.
13
Mä
2024
Gauge invariant quantization for circuits including Josephson junctions
Recently, a new theory of superconductivity has been put forward that attributes the origin of superconductivity to the appearance of a non-trivial Berry connection from many-electron
wave functions.
This theory reproduces the major results of the BCS theory with conserving the particle number, and predicts the single-electron supercurrent tunneling across the Josephson junction with keeping the correct Josephson relation. We re-examine the quantization of superconducting qubit circuits by taking into account the above development, and show that the dynamical variables used in the standard theory, the flux nodes relating to the voltage, should be replaced by those relating to the electromagnetic vector potential. The fact that the Josephson junction tunneling allows the single-electron supercurrent tunneling is the reason for the existence of excited single electrons in superconducting qubits with Josephson junctions. We predict that it will be avoided by weakening the coupling between two superconductors in the Josephson junction.
Coherent competition and control between three-wave mixing and four-wave mixing in superconducting circuits
Exploring intermixing and interplay between different frequency-mixing processes has always been one of the interesting subjects at the interface of nonlinear optics with quantum optics.
Here we investigate coherent competition and control between three-wave mixing (TWM) and four-wave mixing (FWM) in a cyclic three-level superconducting quantum system. In the weak control-field regime, strong competition leads to an alternating oscillation between TWM and FWM signals and this oscillation is a signature of strong energy exchange between these two nonlinear processes. In particular, such oscillation is absent from conventional multi-wave mixing in atomic systems. Surprisingly, synchronous TWM and FWM processes are demonstrated in the strong control-field regime and, at the same time, their efficiencies can be as high as 40% and 45%, respectively. Our study shows that these competitive behaviors between TWM and FWM can be manipulated by tuning the control-field intensity.
12
Mä
2024
Anomalous magnetic flux via junction twist-angle in a triplet-superconducting transmon qubit
Superconducting transmon qubits with strong anharmonicity and insensitivity to offset charge are highly desirable for low-error implementation. In this work we propose a c-axis junction,
comprising triplet superconductors, and set at a relative twist angle. Invoking spin-orbit coupling and spin polarization, which are known to occur in the material platform of choice, we examine the resulting transmon Hamiltonian. This junction allows for direct control of the single and double Cooper pair tunneling strength, and most remarkably, an anomalous magnetic flux — i.e. a phase offset equivalent to magnetic flux, yet in zero magnetic field. Having control over these three parameters — single and double pair tunneling and anomalous flux — allows for optimal design of the transmon qubit. Interestingly, in this architecture, the anomalous flux is determined by the twist angle of the junction, thereby offering a novel zero-field functionality. Our key results rely on symmetry arguments, for concreteness we demonstrate the implementation of our concept using a model of moiré graphene-based c-axis junctions.