We demonstrate the active suppression of transmon qubit dephasing induced by dispersive measurement, using parametric amplification and analog feedback. By real-time processing of thehomodyne record, the feedback controller reverts the stochastic quantum phase kick imparted by the measurement on the qubit. The feedback operation matches a model of quantum trajectories with measurement efficiency η~≈0.5, consistent with the result obtained by postselection. We overcome the bandwidth limitations of the amplification chain by numerically optimizing the signal processing in the feedback loop and provide a theoretical model explaining the optimization result.
The stochastic evolution of quantum systems during measurement is arguably the most enigmatic feature of quantum mechanics. Measuring a quantum system typically steers it towards aclassical state, destroying any initial quantum superposition and any entanglement with other quantum systems. Remarkably, the measurement of a shared property between non-interacting quantum systems can generate entanglement starting from an uncorrelated state. Of special interest in quantum computing is the parity measurement, which projects a register of quantum bits (qubits) to a state with an even or odd total number of excitations. Crucially, a parity meter must discern the two parities with high fidelity while preserving coherence between same-parity states. Despite numerous proposals for atomic, semiconducting, and superconducting qubits, realizing a parity meter creating entanglement for both even and odd measurement results has remained an outstanding challenge. We realize a time-resolved, continuous parity measurement of two superconducting qubits using the cavity in a 3D circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architecture and phase-sensitive parametric amplification. Using postselection, we produce entanglement by parity measurement reaching 77% concurrence. Incorporating the parity meter in a feedback-control loop, we transform the entanglement generation from probabilistic to fully deterministic, achieving 66% fidelity to a target Bell state on demand. These realizations of a parity meter and a feedback-enabled deterministic measurement protocol provide key ingredients for active quantum error correction in the solid state.