We introduce Cryoscope, a method for sampling on-chip baseband pulses used to dynamically control qubit frequency in a quantum processor. We specifically use Cryoscope to measure thestep response of the dedicated flux control lines of two-junction transmon qubits in circuit QED processors with the temporal resolution of the room-temperature arbitrary waveform generator producing the control pulses. As a first application, we iteratively improve this step response using optimized real-time digital filters to counter the linear-dynamical distortion in the control line, as needed for high-fidelity, repeatable one- and two-qubit gates based on dynamical control of qubit frequency.
The speed of quantum gates and measurements is a decisive factor for the overall fidelity of quantum protocols when performed on physical qubits with finite coherence time. Reducingthe time required to distinguish qubit states with high fidelity is therefore a critical goal in quantum information science. The state-of-the-art readout of superconducting qubits is based on the dispersive interaction with a readout resonator. Here, we bring this technique to its current limit and demonstrate how the careful design of system parameters leads to fast and high-fidelity measurements without affecting qubit coherence. We achieve this result by increasing the dispersive interaction strength, by choosing an optimal linewidth of the readout resonator, by employing a Purcell filter, and by utilizing phase-sensitive parametric amplification. In our experiment, we measure 98.25% readout fidelity in only 48 ns, when minimizing read-out time, and 99.2% in 88 ns, when maximizing the fidelity, limited predominantly by the qubit lifetime of 7.6 us. The presented scheme is also expected to be suitable for integration into a multiplexed readout architecture.
Low-loss waveguides are required for quantum communication at distances beyond the chip-scale for any low-temperature solid-state implementation of quantum information processors. Wemeasure and analyze the attenuation constant of commercially available microwave-frequency waveguides down to millikelvin temperatures and single photon levels. More specifically, we characterize the frequency-dependent loss of a range of coaxial and rectangular microwave waveguides down to 0.005dB/m using a resonant-cavity technique. We study the loss tangent and relative permittivity of commonly used dielectric waveguide materials by measurements of the internal quality factors and their comparison with established loss models. The results of our characterization are relevant for accurately predicting the signal levels at the input of cryogenic devices, for reducing the loss in any detection chain, and for estimating the heat load induced by signal dissipation in cryogenic systems.
Systems of interacting quantum spins show a rich spectrum of quantum phases and display interesting many-body dynamics. Computing characteristics of even small systems on conventionalcomputers poses significant challenges. A quantum simulator has the potential to outperform standard computers in calculating the evolution of complex quantum systems. Here, we perform a digital quantum simulation of the paradigmatic Heisenberg and Ising interacting spin models using a two transmon-qubit circuit quantum electrodynamics setup. We make use of the exchange interaction naturally present in the simulator to construct a digital decomposition of the model-specific evolution and extract its full dynamics. This approach is universal and efficient, employing only resources which are polynomial in the number of spins and indicates a path towards the controlled simulation of general spin dynamics in superconducting qubit platforms.
We demonstrate a coupled cavity realization of a Bose Hubbard dimer to achieve quantum limited amplification and to generate frequency entangled microwave fields with squeezing parameterswell below -12 dB. In contrast to previous implementations of parametric amplifiers our dimer can be operated both as a degenerate and as a nondegenerate amplifier. The large measured gain-bandwidth product of more than 250 MHz for nondegenerate operation and the saturation at input photon numbers as high as 2000 per us are both expected to be improvable even further, while maintaining wide frequency tunability of about 2 GHz. Featuring flexible control over all relevant system parameters, the presented Bose-Hubbard dimer based on lumped element circuits has significant potential as an elementary cell in nonlinear cavity arrays for quantum simulation.
Transferring the state of an information carrier from a sender to a receiver
is an essential primitive in both classical and quantum communication and
information processing. In a quantumprocess known as teleportation the unknown
state of a quantum bit can be relayed to a distant party using shared
entanglement and classical information. Here we present experiments in a
solid-state system based on superconducting quantum circuits demonstrating the
teleportation of the state of a qubit at the macroscopic scale. In our
experiments teleportation is realized deterministically with high efficiency
and achieves a high rate of transferred qubit states. This constitutes a
significant step towards the realization of repeaters for quantum communication
at microwave frequencies and broadens the tool set for quantum information
processing with superconducting circuits.