The fluxonium qubit is a promising candidate for quantum computation due to its long coherence times and large anharmonicity. We present a tunable coupler that realizes strong inductivecoupling between two heavy-fluxonium qubits, each with ∼50MHz frequencies and ∼5 GHz anharmonicities. The coupler enables the qubits to have a large tuning range of XX coupling strengths (−35 to 75 MHz). The ZZ coupling strength is <3kHz across the entire coupler bias range, and <100Hz at the coupler off-position. These qualities lead to fast, high-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates. By driving at the difference frequency of the two qubits, we realize a iSWAP‾‾‾‾‾‾‾√ gate in 258ns with fidelity 99.72%, and by driving at the sum frequency of the two qubits, we achieve a bSWAP‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾√ gate in 102ns with fidelity 99.91%. This latter gate is only 5 qubit Larmor periods in length. We run cross-entropy benchmarking for over 20 consecutive hours and measure stable gate fidelities, with bSWAP‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾√ drift (2σ) <0.02% and iSWAP‾‾‾‾‾‾‾√ drift <0.08%.[/expand]
Niobium offers the benefit of increased operating temperatures and frequencies for Josephson junctions, which are the core component of superconducting devices. However existing niobiumprocesses are limited by more complicated fabrication methods and higher losses than now-standard aluminum junctions. Combining recent trilayer fabrication advancements, methods to remove lossy dielectrics and modern superconducting qubit design, we revisit niobium trilayer junctions and fabricate all-niobium transmons using only optical lithography. We characterize devices in the microwave domain, measuring coherence times up to 62 μs and an average qubit quality factor above 105: much closer to state-of-the-art aluminum-junction devices. We find the higher superconducting gap energy also results in reduced quasiparticle sensitivity above 0.16 K, where aluminum junction performance deteriorates. Our low-loss junction process is readily applied to standard optical-based foundry processes, opening new avenues for direct integration and scalability, and paves the way for higher-temperature and higher-frequency quantum devices.
Contemporary quantum computers encode and process quantum information in binary qubits (d = 2). However, many architectures include higher energy levels that are left as unused computationalresources. We demonstrate a superconducting ququart (d = 4) processor and combine quantum optimal control with efficient gate decompositions to implement high-fidelity ququart gates. We distinguish between viewing the ququart as a generalized four-level qubit and an encoded pair of qubits, and characterize the resulting gates in each case. In randomized benchmarking experiments we observe gate fidelities greater 95% and identify coherence as the primary limiting factor. Our results validate ququarts as a viable tool for quantum information processing.
Large-scale quantum computers will inevitably need quantum error correction to protect information against decoherence. Traditional error correction typically requires many qubits,along with high-efficiency error syndrome measurement and real-time feedback. Autonomous quantum error correction (AQEC) instead uses steady-state bath engineering to perform the correction in a hardware-efficient manner. We realize an AQEC scheme, implemented with only two transmon qubits in a 2D scalable architecture, that actively corrects single-photon loss and passively suppresses low-frequency dephasing using six microwave drives. Compared to uncorrected encoding, factors of 2.0, 5.1, and 1.4 improvements are experimentally witnessed for the logical zero, one, and superposition states. Our results show the potential of implementing hardware-efficient AQEC to enhance the reliability of a transmon-based quantum information processor.
Processing quantum information using quantum three-level systems or qutrits as the fundamental unit is an alternative to contemporary qubit-based architectures with the potential toprovide significant computational advantages. We demonstrate a fully programmable two-qutrit quantum processor by utilizing the third energy eigenstates of two transmons. We develop a parametric coupler to achieve excellent connectivity in the nine-dimensional Hilbert space enabling efficient implementations of two-qutrit gates. We characterize our processor by realizing several algorithms like Deutsch-Jozsa, Bernstein-Vazirani, and Grover’s search. Our efficient ancilla-free protocols allow us to show that two stages of Grover’s amplification can improve the success rates of an unstructured search with quantum advantage. Our results pave the way for building fully programmable ternary quantum processors using transmons as building blocks for a universal quantum computer.
Long coherence times, large anharmonicity and robust charge-noise insensitivity render fluxonium qubits an interesting alternative to transmons. Recent experiments have demonstratedrecord coherence times for low-frequency fluxonia. Here, we propose a galvanic-coupling scheme with flux-tunable XX coupling. To implement a high-fidelity entangling iSWAP‾‾‾‾‾‾‾√ gate, we modulate the strength of this coupling and devise variable-time identity gates to synchronize required single-qubit operations. Both types of gates are implemented using strong ac flux drives, lasting for only a few drive periods. We employ a theoretical framework capable of capturing qubit dynamics beyond the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) as required for such strong drives. We predict an open-system fidelity of F>0.999 for the iSWAP‾‾‾‾‾‾‾√ gate under realistic conditions.
We introduce a Xilinx RFSoC-based qubit controller (called the Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit, or QICK for short) which supports the direct synthesis of control pulses with carrierfrequencies of up to 6 GHz. The QICK can control multiple qubits or other quantum devices. The QICK consists of a digital board hosting an RFSoC (RF System-on-Chip) FPGA \cite{zcu111}, custom firmware and software and an optional companion custom-designed analog front-end board. We characterize the analog performance of the system, as well as its digital latency, important for quantum error correction and feedback protocols. We benchmark the controller by performing standard characterizations of a transmon qubit. We achieve an average Clifford gate fidelity of avg=99.93%. All of the schematics, firmware, and software are open-source \cite{QICKrepo}.
Artificial atoms realized by superconducting circuits offer unique opportunities to store and process quantum information with high fidelity. Among them, implementations of circuitsthat harness intrinsic noise protection have been rapidly developed in recent years. These noise-protected devices constitute a new class of qubits in which the computational states are largely decoupled from local noise channels. The main challenges in engineering such systems are simultaneously guarding against both bit- and phase-flip errors, and also ensuring high-fidelity qubit control. Although partial noise protection is possible in superconducting circuits relying on a single quantum degree of freedom, the promise of complete protection can only be fulfilled by implementing multimode or hybrid circuits. This Perspective reviews the theoretical principles at the heart of these new qubits, describes recent experiments, and highlights the potential of robust encoding of quantum information in superconducting qubits.
The promise of quantum computing has driven a persistent quest for new qubit platforms with long coherence, fast operation, and large scalability. Electrons, ubiquitous elementary particlesof nonzero charge, spin, and mass, have commonly been perceived as paradigmatic local quantum information carriers. Despite superior controllability and configurability, their practical performance as qubits via either motional or spin states depends critically on their material environment. Here we report our experimental realization of a new qubit platform based upon isolated single electrons trapped on an ultraclean solid neon surface in vacuum. By integrating an electron trap in a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture, we achieve strong coupling between the motional states of a single electron and microwave photons in an on-chip superconducting resonator. Qubit gate operations and dispersive readout are used to measure the energy relaxation time T1 of 15 μs and phase coherence time T2 over 200 ns, indicating that the electron-on-solid-neon qubit already performs near the state of the art as a charge qubit.
Tomography is an indispensable part of quantum computation as it enables diagnosis of a quantum process through state reconstruction. Existing tomographic protocols are based on determiningexpectation values of various Pauli operators which typically require single-qubit rotations. However, in realistic systems, qubits often develop some form of unavoidable stray coupling making it difficult to manipulate one qubit independent of its partners. Consequently, standard protocols applied to those systems result in unfaithful reproduction of the true quantum state. We have developed a protocol, called coupling compensated tomography, that can correct for errors due to parasitic couplings completely in software and accurately determine the quantum state. We demonstrate the performance of our scheme on a system of two transmon qubits with always-on ZZ coupling. Our technique is a generic tomography tool that can be applied to large systems with different types of stray inter-qubit couplings and facilitates the use of arbitrary tomography pulses and even non-orthogonal axes of rotation.