This paper reports the development of an electronic system for the control and readout of superconducting qubits. The system includes a timing control module (TCM), four-channel arbitrarywaveform generators (AWGs), four-channel data acquisition modules (DAQs), six-channel bias voltage generators (BVGs), a controller card, and mixers. The AWGs have a 2-GSa/s sampling rate and a 14-bit amplitude resolution. The DAQs provide a 1-GSa/s sampling rate and 12-bit amplitude resolution. The BVGs provide an ultra-precise DC voltage with a noise level of ~6 {\mu}Vp-p. The TCM sends system clock and global triggers to each module through a high-speed backplane to achieve precise timing control. These modules are implemented in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). While achieving highly customized functions, the physical interface and communication protocol are compatible with each other. The modular design is suitable for quantum computing experiments of different scales up to hundreds of qubits. We implement a real-time digital signal processing system in the FPGA, enabling precise timing control, arbitrary waveform generation, parallel IQ demodulation for qubit state discrimination, and the generation of real-time qubit-state-dependent trigger signals for active feedback control. We demonstrate the functionalities and performance of this system using a fluxonium quantum processor.
Controllable interaction between superconducting qubits is desirable for large-scale quantum computation and simulation. Here, based on a theoretical proposal by Yan et al. [Phys. Rev.Appl. 10, 054061 (2018)] we experimentally demonstrate a simply-designed and flux-controlled tunable coupler with continuous tunability by adjusting the coupler frequency, which can completely turn off adjacent superconducting qubit coupling. Utilizing the tunable interaction between two qubits via the coupler, we implement a controlled-phase (CZ) gate by tuning one qubit frequency into and out of the usual operating point while dynamically keeping the qubit-qubit coupling off. This scheme not only efficiently suppresses the leakage out of the computational subspace but also allows for the acquired two-qubit phase being geometric at the operating point only where the coupling is on. We achieve an average CZ gate fidelity of 98.3%, which is dominantly limited by qubit decoherence. The demonstrated tunable coupler provides a desirable tool to suppress adjacent qubit coupling and is suitable for large-scale quantum computation and simulation.
Nanofabrication techniques for superconducting qubits rely on resist-based masks patterned by electron-beam or optical lithography. We have developed an alternative nanofabricationtechnique based on free-standing silicon shadow masks fabricated from silicon-on-insulator wafers. These silicon shadow masks not only eliminate organic residues associated with resist-based lithography, but also provide a pathway to better understand and control surface-dielectric losses in superconducting qubits by decoupling mask fabrication from substrate preparation. We have successfully fabricated aluminum 3D transmon superconducting qubits with these shadow masks, and demonstrated energy relaxation times on par with state-of-the-art values.
Dephasing induced by residual thermal photons in the readout resonator is a leading factor limiting the coherence times of qubits in the circuit QED architecture. This residual thermalpopulation, of the order of 10^−1–10^−3, is suspected to arise from noise impinging on the resonator from its input and output ports. To address this problem, we designed and tested a new type of band-pass microwave attenuator that consists of a dissipative cavity well thermalized to the mixing chamber stage of a dilution refrigerator. By adding such a cavity attenuator inline with a 3D superconducting cavity housing a transmon qubit, we have reproducibly measured increased qubit coherence times. At base temperature, through Hahn echo experiment, we measured T2e/2T1=1.0(+0.0/−0.1) for two qubits over multiple cooldowns. Through noise-induced dephasing measurement, we obtained an upper bound 2×10^−4 on the residual photon population in the fundamental mode of the readout cavity, which to our knowledge is the lowest value reported so far. These results validate an effective method for protecting qubits against photon noise, which can be developed into a standard technology for quantum circuit experiments.
We study experimentally a vacuum induced Aulter-Townes doublet in a superconducting three-level artificial atom strongly coupled to a coplanar waveguide resonator and simultaneouslyto a transmission line. The Aulter-Townes splitting is observed in the reflection spectrum of the three-level atom when the transition between two excited states is resonant with the resonator. By varying an amplitude of the driving field applied to the resonator, we observe quantum-to-classical transition of the Aulter-Townes splitting. Our results may pave the way for the control of microwaves by single photons.
We have investigated the microwave response of a transmon qubit coupled directly to a transmission line. In a transmon qubit, owing to its weak anharmonicity, a single driving fieldmay generate dressed states involving more than two bare states. We confirmed the formation of three-state dressed states by observing all of the six associated Rabi sidebands, which appear as either amplification or attenuation of the probe field. The experimental results are reproduced with good precision by a theoretical model incorporating the radiative coupling between the qubit and the microwave.