Engineering superconducting qubits to reduce quasiparticles and charge noise

  1. Xianchuang Pan,
  2. Haolan Yuan,
  3. Yuxuan Zhou,
  4. Libo Zhang,
  5. Jian Li,
  6. Song Liu,
  7. Zhi Hao Jiang,
  8. Gianluigi Catelani,
  9. Ling Hu,
  10. and Fei Yan
In any physical realization of a qubit, identifying, quantifying, and suppressing mechanisms of decoherence are important steps towards the goal of engineering a universal quantum computeror a quantum simulator. Superconducting circuits based on Josephson junctions offer flexibility in qubit design; however, their performance is adversely affected by quasiparticles (broken Cooper pairs) whose density, as observed in various systems, is considerably higher than that expected in thermal equilibrium. A full understanding of the generation mechanism and a mitigation strategy that is compatible with scalable, high-coherence devices are therefore highly desirable. Here we experimentally demonstrate how to control quasiparticle generation by downsizing the qubit structure, capping it with a metallic cover, and equipping it with suitable quasiparticle traps. We achieve record low charge-parity switching rate (<1Hz) in our aluminium devices. At the same time, the devices display improved stability with respect to discrete charging events. Our findings support the hypothesis that the generation of quasiparticles is dominated by the breaking of Cooper pairs at the junction, as a result of photon absorption mediated by the antenna-like qubit structure. We thus demonstrate a convenient approach to shape the electromagnetic environment of superconducting circuits in the sub-terahertz regime, inhibiting decoherence from quasiparticle poisoning.[/expand]

Optimal charging of a superconducting quantum battery

  1. Chang-Kang Hu,
  2. Jiawei Qiu,
  3. Paulo J. P. Souza,
  4. Jiahao Yuan,
  5. Yuxuan Zhou,
  6. Libo Zhang,
  7. Ji Chu,
  8. Xianchuang Pan,
  9. Ling Hu,
  10. Jian Li,
  11. Yuan Xu,
  12. Youpeng Zhong,
  13. Song Liu,
  14. Fei Yan,
  15. Dian Tan,
  16. R. Bachelard,
  17. C. J. Villas-Boas,
  18. Alan C. Santos,
  19. and Dapeng Yu
Quantum batteries are miniature energy storage devices and play a very important role in quantum thermodynamics. In recent years, quantum batteries have been extensively studied, but
limited in theoretical level. Here we report the experimental realization of a quantum battery based on superconducting qubits. Our model explores dark and bright states to achieve stable and powerful charging processes, respectively. Our scheme makes use of the quantum adiabatic brachistochrone, which allows us to speed up the {battery ergotropy injection. Due to the inherent interaction of the system with its surrounding, the battery exhibits a self-discharge, which is shown to be described by a supercapacitor-like self-discharging mechanism. Our results paves the way for proposals of new superconducting circuits able to store extractable work for further usage.

Suppressing Coherent Two-Qubit Errors via Dynamical Decoupling

  1. Jiawei Qiu,
  2. Yuxuan Zhou,
  3. Chang-Kang Hu,
  4. Jiahao Yuan,
  5. Libo Zhang,
  6. Ji Chu,
  7. Wenhui Huang,
  8. Weiyang Liu,
  9. Kai Luo,
  10. Zhongchu Ni,
  11. Xianchuang Pan,
  12. Zhixuan Yang,
  13. Yimeng Zhang,
  14. Yuanzhen Chen,
  15. Xiu-Hao Deng,
  16. Ling Hu,
  17. Jian Li,
  18. Jingjing Niu,
  19. Yuan Xu,
  20. Tongxing Yan,
  21. Youpeng Zhong,
  22. Song Liu,
  23. Fei Yan,
  24. and Dapeng Yu
Scalable quantum information processing requires the ability to tune multi-qubit interactions. This makes the precise manipulation of quantum states particularly difficult for multi-qubit
interactions because tunability unavoidably introduces sensitivity to fluctuations in the tuned parameters, leading to erroneous multi-qubit gate operations. The performance of quantum algorithms may be severely compromised by coherent multi-qubit errors. It is therefore imperative to understand how these fluctuations affect multi-qubit interactions and, more importantly, to mitigate their influence. In this study, we demonstrate how to implement dynamical-decoupling techniques to suppress the two-qubit analogue of the dephasing on a superconducting quantum device featuring a compact tunable coupler, a trending technology that enables the fast manipulation of qubit–qubit interactions. The pure-dephasing time shows an up to ~14 times enhancement on average when using robust sequences. The results are in good agreement with the noise generated from room-temperature circuits. Our study further reveals the decohering processes associated with tunable couplers and establishes a framework to develop gates and sequences robust against two-qubit errors.