Many-excitation removal of a transmon qubit using a single-junction quantum-circuit refrigerator and a two-tone microwave drive

  1. Wallace Teixeira,
  2. Timm Mörstedt,
  3. Arto Viitanen,
  4. Heidi Kivijärvi,
  5. András Gunyhó,
  6. Maaria Tiiri,
  7. Suman Kundu,
  8. Aashish Sah,
  9. Vasilii Vadimov,
  10. and Mikko Möttönen
Achieving fast and precise initialization of qubits is a critical requirement for the successful operation of quantum computers. The combination of engineered environments with all-microwave
techniques has recently emerged as a promising approach for the reset of superconducting quantum devices. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the utilization of a single-junction quantum-circuit refrigerator (QCR) for an expeditious removal of several excitations from a transmon qubit. The QCR is indirectly coupled to the transmon through a resonator in the dispersive regime, constituting a carefully engineered environmental spectrum for the transmon. Using single-shot readout, we observe excitation stabilization times down to roughly 500 ns, a 20-fold speedup with QCR and a simultaneous two-tone drive addressing the e-f and f0-g1 transitions of the system. Our results are obtained at a 48-mK fridge temperature and without postselection, fully capturing the advantage of the protocol for the short-time dynamics and the drive-induced detrimental asymptotic behavior in the presence of relatively hot other baths of the transmon. We validate our results with a detailed Liouvillian model truncated up to the three-excitation subspace, from which we estimate the performance of the protocol in optimized scenarios, such as cold transmon baths and fine-tuned driving frequencies. These results pave the way for optimized reset of quantum-electric devices using engineered environments and for dissipation-engineered state preparation.

Unimon qubit

  1. Eric Hyyppä,
  2. Suman Kundu,
  3. Chun Fai Chan,
  4. András Gunyhó,
  5. Juho Hotari,
  6. Olavi Kiuru,
  7. Alessandro Landra,
  8. Wei Liu,
  9. Fabian Marxer,
  10. Akseli Mäkinen,
  11. Jean-Luc Orgiazzi,
  12. Mario Palma,
  13. Mykhailo Savytskyi,
  14. Francesca Tosto,
  15. Jani Tuorila,
  16. Vasilii Vadimov,
  17. Tianyi Li,
  18. Caspar Ockeloen-Korppi,
  19. Johannes Heinsoo,
  20. Kuan Yen Tan,
  21. Juha Hassel,
  22. and Mikko Möttönen
Superconducting qubits are one of the most promising candidates to implement quantum computers. The superiority of superconducting quantum computers over any classical device in simulating
random but well-determined quantum circuits has already been shown in two independent experiments and important steps have been taken in quantum error correction. However, the currently wide-spread qubit designs do not yet provide high enough performance to enable practical applications or efficient scaling of logical qubits owing to one or several following issues: sensitivity to charge or flux noise leading to decoherence, too weak non-linearity preventing fast operations, undesirably dense excitation spectrum, or complicated design vulnerable to parasitic capacitance. Here, we introduce and demonstrate a superconducting-qubit type, the unimon, which combines the desired properties of high non-linearity, full insensitivity to dc charge noise, insensitivity to flux noise, and a simple structure consisting only of a single Josephson junction in a resonator. We measure the qubit frequency, ω01/(2π), and anharmonicity α over the full dc-flux range and observe, in agreement with our quantum models, that the qubit anharmonicity is greatly enhanced at the optimal operation point, yielding, for example, 99.9% and 99.8% fidelity for 13-ns single-qubit gates on two qubits with (ω01,α)=(4.49 GHz,434 MHz)×2π and (3.55 GHz,744 MHz)×2π, respectively. The energy relaxation time T1≲10 μs is stable for hours and seems to be limited by dielectric losses. Thus, future improvements of the design, materials, and gate time may promote the unimon to break the 99.99% fidelity target for efficient quantum error correction and possible quantum advantage with noisy systems.