Precise control of superconducting qubits is essential for advancing both quantum simulation and quantum error correction. Recently, transmon qubit systems employing the single-transmoncoupler (STC) scheme have demonstrated high-fidelity single- and two-qubit gate operations by dynamically tuning the effective coupling between qubits. However, the integration of STCs increases the number of control lines, thereby posing a significant bottleneck for chip routing and scalability. To address this challenge, we propose a robust control line multiplexing scheme based on a double-transmon coupler (DTC) architecture, which enables shared coupler control lines to substantially reduce wiring complexity. Moreover, we experimentally verify that this multiplexed configuration efficiently suppresses undesirable static ZZ coupling while maintaining accurate control over two-qubit gate operations. We further demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture through two distinct gate implementations: a fast coupler Z-control-based CZ gate and a parametric iSWAP gate. To validate the practical applicability of this multiplexing approach in quantum circuits, we prepare Bell and three-qubit GHZ states using the proposed scheme with fidelity exceeding 99% and 96%, respectively. This multiplexed DTC architecture offers significant potential to minimize wiring overhead in two-dimensional qubit arrays, thereby greatly enhancing the scalability of superconducting quantum processors.
The unique property of tantalum (Ta), particularly its long coherent lifetime in superconducting qubits and its exceptional resistance to both acid and alkali, makes it promising forsuperconducting quantum processors. It is a notable advantage to achieve high-performance quantum processors with neat and unified fabrication of all circuit elements, including coplanar waveguides (CPW), qubits, and airbridges, on the tantalum film-based platform. Here, we propose a reliable tantalum airbridges with separate or fully-capped structure fabricated via a novel lift-off method, where a barrier layer with aluminium (Al) film is first introduced to separate two layers of photoresist and then etched away before the deposition of tantalum film, followed by cleaning with piranha solution to remove the residual photoresist on the chip. We characterize such tantalum airbridges as the control line jumpers, the ground plane crossovers and even coupling elements. They exhibit excellent connectivity, minimal capacitive loss, effectively suppress microwave and flux crosstalk and offer high freedom of coupling. Besides, by presenting a surface-13 tunable coupling superconducting quantum processor with median T1 reaching above 100 μs, the overall adaptability of tantalum airbridges is verified. The median single-qubit gate fidelity shows a tiny decrease from about 99.95% for the isolated Randomized Benchmarking to 99.94% for the simultaneous one. This fabrication method, compatible with all known superconducting materials, requires mild conditions of film deposition compared with the commonly used etching and grayscale lithography. Meanwhile, the experimental achievement of non-local coupling with controlled-Z (CZ) gate fidelity exceeding 99.2% may further facilitate qLDPC codes, laying a foundation for scalable quantum computation and quantum error correction with entirely tantalum elements.
Noise is a significant obstacle to quantum computing, and ZZ crosstalk is one of the most destructive types of noise affecting superconducting qubits. Previous approaches to suppressingZZ crosstalk have mainly relied on specific chip design that can complicate chip fabrication and aggravate decoherence. To some extent, special chip design can be avoided by relying on pulse optimization to suppress ZZ crosstalk. However, existing approaches are non-scalable, as their required time and memory grow exponentially with the number of qubits involved. To address the above problems, we propose a scalable approach by co-optimizing pulses and scheduling. We optimize pulses to offer an ability to suppress ZZ crosstalk surrounding a gate, and then design scheduling strategies to exploit this ability and achieve suppression across the whole circuit. A main advantage of such co-optimization is that it does not require special hardware support. Besides, we implement our approach as a general framework that is compatible with different pulse optimization methods. We have conducted extensive evaluations by simulation and on a real quantum computer. Simulation results show that our proposal can improve the fidelity of quantum computing on 4∼12 qubits by up to 81× (11× on average). Ramsey experiments on a real quantum computer also demonstrate that our method can eliminate the effect of ZZ crosstalk to a great extent.
Shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) are powerful quantum control methods, allowing quick evolution into target states of otherwise slow adiabatic dynamics. Such methods have widespreadapplications in quantum technologies, and various STA protocols have been demonstrated in closed systems. However, realizing STA for open quantum systems has presented a greater challenge, due to complex controls required in existing proposals. Here we present the first experimental demonstration of STA for open quantum systems, using a superconducting circuit QED system consisting of two coupled bosonic oscillators and a transmon qubit. By applying a counterdiabatic driving pulse, we reduce the adiabatic evolution time of a single lossy mode from 800 ns to 100 ns. In addition, we propose and implement an optimal control protocol to achieve fast and qubit-unconditional equilibrium of multiple lossy modes. Our results pave the way for accelerating dynamics of open quantum systems and have potential applications in designing fast open-system protocols of physical and interdisciplinary interest, such as accelerating bioengineering and chemical reaction dynamics.
Qubit initialization is critical for many quantum algorithms and error correction schemes, and extensive efforts have been made to achieve this with high speed and efficiency. Herewe experimentally demonstrate a fast and high fidelity reset scheme for tunable superconducting qubits. A rapid decay channel is constructed by modulating the flux through a transmon qubit and realizing a swap between the qubit and its readout resonator. The residual excited population can be suppressed to 0.08% ± 0.08% within 34 ns, and the scheme requires no additional chip architecture, projective measurements, or feedback loops. In addition, the scheme has negligible effects on neighboring qubits, and is therefore suitable for large-scale multi-qubit systems. Our method also offers a way of entangling the qubit state with an itinerant single photon, particularly useful in quantum communication and quantum network applications.