High-fidelity quantum gates are essential for scalable quantum computation. However, at short durations, short-timescale waveform distortions break the time-reflection symmetry of controlpulses, preventing the precise closure of cyclic evolution. This mechanism renders conventional symmetric protocols intrinsically over-constrained. Conventional strategies typically rely on smoothing the pulse envelopes or embedding the interaction pulse within a longer qubit pulse to bypass short-timescale distortions, which inevitably leads to a persistent speed-fidelity trade-off. To overcome this limitation, we introduce a cyclic control strategy based on parameter-space expansion, which restores controllability by incorporating an additional degree of freedom. We experimentally demonstrate this approach in a superconducting controlled-Z gate, achieving robust suppression of coherent errors without increasing gate duration, reducing the average coherent error from 0.27% to 0.12% across multiple two-qubit gates, as validated by cross-entropy benchmarking. Our results establish a general route to fast, high-fidelity cyclic quantum gates beyond the conventional speed-fidelity trade-off.
In a circuit QED architecture, we experimentally demonstrate a simple and hardware-efficient Single-Step Phase-Engineered (SSPE) pulse scheme for actively depopulating the readout cavity.The method appends a reset segment with tailored amplitude and phase to a normal square readout pulse. Within the linear-response regime, the optimal reset amplitude scales proportionally with the readout amplitude, while the optimal reset phase remains nearly invariant, significantly simplifying the calibration process. By characterizing the cavity photons dynamics, we show that the SSPE pulse accelerates photon depletion by up to a factor of six compared to passive free decay. We further quantify the qubit backaction induced by the readout pulse and find that the SSPE pulse yields the lowest excitation and relaxation rates compared to a Square and CLEAR pulses. Our results establish the SSPE scheme as a practical and scalable approach for achieving fast, smooth, low-backaction cavity reset in superconducting quantum circuits.
Hamiltonian inverse engineering enables the design of protocols for specific quantum evolutions or target state preparation. Perfect state transfer (PST) and remote entanglement generationare notable examples, as they serve as key primitives in quantum information processing. However, Hamiltonians obtained through conventional methods often lack robustness against noise. Assisted by inverse engineering, we begin with a noise-resilient energy spectrum and construct a class of Hamiltonians, referred to as the dome model, that significantly improves the system’s robustness against noise, as confirmed by numerical simulations. This model introduces a tunable parameter m that modifies the energy-level spacing and gives rise to a well-structured Hamiltonian. It reduces to the conventional PST model at m=0 and simplifies to a SWAP model involving only two end qubits in the large-m regime. To address the challenge of scalability, we propose a cascaded strategy that divides long-distance PST into multiple consecutive PST steps. Our work is particularly suited for demonstration on superconducting qubits with tunable couplers, which enable rapid and flexible Hamiltonian engineering, thereby advancing the experimental potential of robust and scalable quantum information processing.
Spectator-induced leakage poses a fundamental challenge to scalable quantum computing, particularly as frequency collisions become unavoidable in multi-qubit processors. We introducea leakage mitigation strategy based on dynamically reshaping the system Hamiltonian. Our technique utilizes a tunable coupler to enforce a block-diagonal structure on the effective Hamiltonian governing near-resonant spectator interactions, confining the gate dynamics to a two-dimensional invariant subspace and thus preventing leakage by construction. On a multi-qubit superconducting processor, we experimentally demonstrate that this dynamic control scheme suppresses leakage rates to the order of 10−4 across a wide near-resonant detuning range. The method also scales effectively with the number of spectators. With three simultaneous spectators, the total leakage remains below the threshold relevant for surface code error correction. This approach eases the tension between dense frequency packing and high-fidelity gate operation, establishing dynamic Hamiltonian engineering as an essential tool for advancing fault-tolerant quantum computing.