Three-wave mixing is a key process in superconducting quantum information processing, being involved in quantum-limited amplification and parametric coupling between superconductingcavities. These operations can be implemented by SNAIL-based devices that present a Kerr-free flux-bias point where unwanted parasitic effects such as Stark shift are suppressed. However, with a single flux-bias parameter, these circuits can only host one Kerr-free point, limiting the range of their applications. In this Letter, we demonstrate how to overcome this constraint with a gradiometric SNAIL, a doubly-flux biased superconducting circuit for which both effective inductance and Kerr coefficient can be independently tuned. Experimental data show the capability of the gradiometric SNAIL to suppress Kerr effect in a three-wave mixing parametric amplifier over a continuum of flux bias points corresponding to a 1.7 GHz range of operating frequencies.
Fault-tolerant quantum information processing with flawed qubits and gates requires highly efficient, quantum non-demolition (QND) qubit readout. In superconducting circuits, qubitreadout using coherent light with fidelity above 99% has been achieved by using quantum-limited parametric amplifiers such as the Josephson Parametric Converter (JPC). However, further improvement of such measurement is fundamentally limited by the vacuum fluctuations of the coherent light used for readout. In this work we measure a transmon qubit/cavity system with an unbalanced two-mode squeezed light interferometer formed from two JPCs. The first amplifier generates two-mode squeezed vacuum at its output, which is coherently recombined by the second amplifier after one branch is shifted and displaced by the transmon’s state after it interacts with the qubit/cavity system on one arm of the interferometer. We have observed a 44% improvement in power Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of projective readout compared to that of coherent light readout in the same system. To investigate the quantum properties of the two-mode squeezed light in the system, we also studied weak measurement and found, surprisingly, that tuning the interferometer to be as unprojective as possible was associated with an increase in the quantum efficiency of our readout relative to the optimum setting for projective measurement. These enhancements may enable remote entanglement with lower efficiency components in a system with qubits in both arms of the interferometer.
We introduce a novel near-quantum-limited amplifier with a large tunable bandwidth and high dynamic range – the Josephson Array Mode Parametric Amplifier (JAMPA). The signal andidler modes involved in the amplification process are realized by the array modes of a chain of 1000 flux tunable, Josephson-junction-based, nonlinear elements. The frequency spacing between array modes is comparable to the flux tunability of the modes, ensuring that any desired frequency can be occupied by a resonant mode, which can further be pumped to produce high gain. We experimentally demonstrate that the device can be operated as a nearly quantum-limited parametric amplifier with 20 dB of gain at almost any frequency within (4-12) GHz band. On average, it has a 3 dB bandwidth of 11 MHz and input 1 dB compression power of -108 dBm, which can go as high as -93 dBm. We envision the application of such a device to the time- and frequency-multiplexed readout of multiple qubits, as well as to the generation of continuous-variable cluster states.