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
27
Jul
2013
Squeezing with a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier
Josephson parametric amplifiers (JPA) are promising devices for applications in circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) and for studies on propagating quantum microwaves because of their
good noise performance. In this work, we present a systematic characterization of a flux-driven JPA at millikelvin temperatures. In particular, we study in detail its squeezing properties by two different detection techniques. With the homodyne setup, we observe squeezing of vacuum fluctuations by superposing signal and idler bands. For a quantitative analysis we apply dual-path cross-correlation techniques to reconstruct the Wigner functions of various squeezed vacuum and thermal states. At 10 dB signal gain, we find 4.9+-0.2 dB squeezing below vacuum. In addition, we discuss the physics behind squeezed coherent microwave fields. Finally, we analyze the JPA noise temperature in the degenerate mode and find a value smaller than the standard quantum limit for phase-insensitive amplifiers.
24
Jul
2013
Charge qubit driven via the Josephson nonlinearity
We study the novel nonlinear phenomena that emerge in a charge qubit due to the interplay between a strong microwave flux drive and a periodic Josephson potential. We first analyze
the system in terms of the linear Landau-Zener-St\“uckelberg model, and show its inadequacy in a periodic system with several Landau-Zener crossings within a drive period. Experimentally, we probe the quasienergy levels of the driven qubit with an LC-cavity, which requires the use of linear response theory. We also show that our numerical calculations are in good agreement with the experimental data.
19
Jul
2013
Dissipation-induced perfect squeezing by damping modulation in circuit quantum electrodynamics
Dissipation-driven quantum state engineering uses the environment to steer the state of quantum systems and preserve quantum coherence in the steady state. We show that modulating the
damping rate of a microwave resonator generates a new squeezing mechanism that creates a vacuum squeezed state of arbitrary squeezing strength, thereby allowing perfect squeezing. Given the recent experimental realizations in circuit QED of a microwave resonator with a tunable damping rate [Yin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 107001 (2013)], superconducting circuits are an ideal playground to implement this technique. By dispersively coupling a qubit to the microwave resonator, it is possible to obtain qubit-state dependent squeezing.
16
Jul
2013
Stabilizing entanglement autonomously between two superconducting qubits
Quantum error-correction codes would protect an arbitrary state of a multi-qubit register against decoherence-induced errors, but their implementation is an outstanding challenge for
the development of large-scale quantum computers. A first step is to stabilize a non-equilibrium state of a simple quantum system such as a qubit or a cavity mode in the presence of decoherence. Several groups have recently accomplished this goal using measurement-based feedback schemes. A next step is to prepare and stabilize a state of a composite system. Here we demonstrate the stabilization of an entangled Bell state of a quantum register of two superconducting qubits for an arbitrary time. Our result is achieved by an autonomous feedback scheme which combines continuous drives along with a specifically engineered coupling between the two-qubit register and a dissipative reservoir. Similar autonomous feedback techniques have recently been used for qubit reset and the stabilization of a single qubit state, as well as for creating and stabilizing states of multipartite quantum systems. Unlike conventional, measurement-based schemes, an autonomous approach counter-intuitively uses engineered dissipation to fight decoherence, obviating the need for a complicated external feedback loop to correct errors, simplifying implementation. Instead the feedback loop is built into the Hamiltonian such that the steady state of the system in the presence of drives and dissipation is a Bell state, an essential building-block state for quantum information processing. Such autonomous schemes, broadly applicable to a variety of physical systems as demonstrated by a concurrent publication with trapped ion qubits, will be an essential tool for the implementation of quantum-error correction.
15
Jul
2013
Nonequilibrium and nonperturbative dynamics of ultrastrong coupling in open lines
We study the time and space resolved dynamics of a qubit with an Ohmic coupling to propagating 1D photons, from weak coupling to the ultrastrong coupling regime. A nonperturbative study
based on Matrix Product States (MPS) shows the following results: (i) The ground state of the combined systems contains excitations of both the qubit and the surrounding bosonic field. (ii) An initially excited qubit equilibrates through spontaneous emission to a state, which under certain conditions, is locally close to that ground state, both in the qubit and the field. (iii) The resonances of the combined qubit-photon system match those of the spontaneous emission process and also the predictions of the adiabatic renormalization [A. J. Leggett et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 59, 1, (1987)]. Finally, a non-perturbative ab-initio calculations show that this physics can be studied using a flux qubit galvanically coupled to a superconducting transmission line.
09
Jul
2013
Microwave-activated conditional-phase gate for superconducting qubits
We introduce a new entangling gate between two fixed-frequency qubits statically coupled via a microwave resonator bus which combines the following desirable qualities: all-microwave
control, appreciable qubit separation for reduction of crosstalk and leakage errors, and the ability to function as a two-qubit conditional-phase gate. A fixed, always-on interaction is explicitly designed between higher energy (non-computational) states of two transmon qubits, and then a conditional-phase gate is `activated‘ on the otherwise unperturbed qubit subspace via a microwave drive. We implement this microwave-activated conditional-phase gate with a fidelity from quantum process tomography of 87%.
Employing Circuit QED to Measure Nonequilibrium Work Fluctuations
We study an interferometric method for the measurement of the statistics of work performed on a driven quantum system, which has been put forward recently [Dorner et al., Phys. Rev.
Lett. 110 230601 (2013), Mazzola et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 230602 (2013)]. The method allows replacing two projective measurements of the energy of the driven system with qubit tomography of an ancilla that is appropriately coupled to it. We highlight that this method could be employed to obtain the work statistics of closed as well as open driven system, even in the strongly dissipative regime. We then illustrate an implementation of the method in a circuit QED set-up, which allows one to experimentally obtain the work statistics of a parametrically driven harmonic oscillator. Our implementation is an extension of the original method, in which two ancilla-qubits are employed and the work statistics is retrieved through two-qubit state tomography. Our simulations demonstrate the experimental feasibility.
Preparing Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger Entangled Photon Fock States of Three Cavities Coupled by a Superconducting Flux Qutrit
We propose a way to prepare Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) entangled photon Fock states of three cavities, by using a superconducting flux qutrit coupled to the cavities. This proposal
does not require the use of classical microwave pulses and measurement during the entire operation. Thus, the operation is greatly simplified and the circuit engineering complexity and cost is much reduced. The proposal is quite general and can be applied to generate three-cavity GHZ entangled photon Fock states when the three cavities are coupled by a different three-level physical system such as a superconducting charge qutrit, a transmon qutrit, or a quantum dot.
Entanglement generation and quantum information transfer between spatially-separated qubits in different cavities
The generation and control of quantum states of spatially-separated qubits distributed in different cavities constitute fundamental tasks in cavity quantum electrodynamics. An interesting
question in this context is how to prepare entanglement and realize quantum information transfer between qubits located at different cavities, which are important in large-scale quantum information processing. In this paper, we consider a physical system consisting of two cavities and three qubits. Two of the qubits are placed in two different cavities while the remaining one acts as a coupler, which is used to connect the two cavities. We propose an approach for generating quantum entanglement and implementing quantum information transfer between the two spatially-separated intercavity qubits. The quantum operations involved in this proposal are performed by a virtual photon process, and thus the cavity decay is greatly suppressed during the operations. In addition, to complete the present tasks, only one coupler qubit and one operation step are needed. Moreover, there is no need of applying classical pulses, so that the engineering complexity is much reduced and the operation procedure is greatly simplified. Finally, our numerical results illustrate that high-fidelity implementation of this proposal using superconducting phase qubits and one-dimenstion transmision line resonators is feasible for current circuit QED implementations. This proposal can also be applied to other types of superconducting qubits, including flux and charge qubits.
08
Jul
2013
Cavity-Assisted Monitoring of Dynamics for Complex Quantum Systems
Cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamics (CQED) technologies have progressed significantly during recent years, enabling real-time monitoring and control of quantum systems, yet their
potential for quantum tomography or spectroscopy is largely unexplored. We develop here a CQED formalism for monitoring the dynamics of a complex quantum system, deriving a set of Stochastic Hierarchy Equations of Motion to describe continuous measurement in presence of non-perturbative and non-Markovian decoherence effects. Using the cavity as a probe enables us to engineer a continuous measurement observable by tuning either the cavity frequency, the cavity drive phase or the detector phase. This turns the cavity into a tool for continuous quantum state tomography with no need for active control. We further demonstrate that time correlations of the detector record can provide a spectroscopic probe of the non-Markovian nature of the decoherence dynamics.