In a ring of s-wave superconducting material the magnetic flux is quantized in units of $Φ_0 = \frac{h}{2e}$. It is well known from the theory of Josephson junctions that if the ring is interrupted with a piece of d-wave material, then the flux is quantized in one-half of those units due to a additional phase shift of $π$. We reinterpret this phenomenon in terms of geometric phase.
We consider an idealized hetero-junction superconductor with pure s-wave and pure d-wave electron pairs. We find, for this idealized configuration, that the phase shift of $π$ follows from the discontinuity in the geometric phase and is thus a fundamental consequence of quantum mechanics.
Circuit quantization links a physical circuit to its corresponding quantum Hamiltonian. The standard quantization procedure generally assumes any external magnetic flux to be static. Time dependence naturally arises, however, when flux is modulated or when flux noise is considered. In this case, application of the existing quantization procedure can lead to inconsistencies. To resolve these, we generalize circuit quantization to incorporate time-dependent external flux.
We present a systematic canonical quantization procedure for lumped-element superconducting networks by making use of a redundant configuration-space description. The algorithm is based on an original, explicit, and constructive implementation of the symplectic diagonalization of positive semidefinite Hamiltonian matrices, a particular instance of Williamson's theorem. With it, we derive canonically quantized discrete-variable descriptions of passive causal systems. We exemplify the algorithm with representative singular electrical networks, a nonreciprocal extension for the black-box quantiza…
The development of new superconducting circuits and the improvement of existing ones rely on the accurate modeling of spectral properties which are key to achieving the needed advances in qubit performance. Systematic circuit analysis at the lumped-element level, starting from a circuit network and culminating in a Hamiltonian appropriately describing the quantum properties of the circuit, is a well-established procedure, yet cumbersome to carry out manually for larger circuits. We present work utilizing symbolic computer algebra and numerical diagonalization routines versatile enough to tackl…
Based on a pure solid-state device consisting of two superconducting LC circuits coupled to a superconducting flux qubit, we propose in this paper that the maximally entangled coherent states of the two LC modes can be generated for arbitrary coherent states through flux qubit controls.
The semiclassical quantization rule is derived for a system with a spherically symmetric potential $V(r) \sim r^ν$ $(-2<ν<\infty)$ and an Aharonov-Bohm magnetic flux. Numerical results are presented and compared with known results for models with $ν= -1,0,2,\infty$. It is shown that the results provided by our method are in good agreement with previous results. One expects that the semiclassical quantization rule shown in this paper will provide a good approximation for all principle quantum number even the rule is derived in the large principal quantum number limit $n \gg 1$. We also discuss …
In some textbooks on quantum mechanics, the description of flux quantization in a superconductor ring based on the Aharonov-Bohm effect may lead some readers to a (wrong) conclusion that flux quantization occurs as well for a long solenoid with the same quantization condition in which the charge of cooper pair $2e$ is replaced by the charge of one electron $e$. It is shown how this confusion arises and how can one avoid it.
We propose a new quantization method for superconducting electronic circuits involving a Josephson junction device coupled to a linear microwave environment. The method is based on an exact impedance synthesis of the microwave environment considered as a blackbox with impedance function Z(s). The synthesized circuit captures dissipative dynamics of the system with resistors coupled to the reactive part of the circuit in a non-trivial way. We quantize the circuit and compute relaxation rates following previous formalisms for lumped element circuit quantization. Up to the errors in the fit our m…
Here, we propose a scheme to generate a controllable Ising interaction between superconducting flux qubits. Existing schemes rely on inducting couplings to realize Ising interactions between flux qubits, and the interaction strength is controlled by an applied magnetic field On the other hand, we have found a way to generate an interaction between the flux qubits via capacitive couplings. This has an advantage in individual addressability, because we can control the interaction strength by changing an applied voltage that can be easily localized. This is a crucial step toward the realizing sup…
We present a method for calculating the energy levels of superconducting circuits that contain highly anharmonic, inductively-shunted modes with arbitrarily strong coupling. Our method starts by calculating the normal modes of the linearized circuit and proceeds with numerical diagonalization in this basis. As an example, we analyze the Hamiltonian of a fluxonium qubit inductively coupled to a readout resonator. While elementary, this simple example is nontrivial because it cannot be efficiently treated by the method known as "black-box quantization," numerical diagonalization in the bare harm…
We present a theoretical description for circuits consisting of weak anharmonic qubits coupled to cavity multimodes. We obtain a unitary transformation that diagonalizes harmonic sector of the circuit. Weak anharmonicity does not alter the normal mode basis, however it can modify energy levels. We study two examples of a transmon and two transmons coupled to bus resonator, and we determine dressed frequencies and Kerr nonlinearities in closed form formulas. Our results are valid for arbitrary frequency detuning and coupling within and beyond dispersive regime.
We present a semi-classical method for determining the effective low-energy quantum Hamiltonian of weakly anharmonic superconducting circuits containing mesoscopic Josephson junctions coupled to electromagnetic environments made of an arbitrary combination of distributed and lumped elements. A convenient basis, capturing the multi-mode physics, is given by the quantized eigenmodes of the linearized circuit and is fully determined by a classical linear response function. The method is used to calculate numerically the low-energy spectrum of a 3D-transmon system, and quantitative agreement with …
Superconducting, flux-based qubits are promising candidates for the construction of a large scale quantum computer. We present an explicit quantum mechanical calculation of the coherent behavior of a flux based quantum bit in a noisy experimental environment such as an integrated circuit containing bias and control electronics. We show that non-thermal noise sources, such as bias current fluctuations and magnetic coupling to nearby active control circuits, will cause decoherence of a flux-based qubit on a timescale comparable to recent experimental coherence time measurements.
A model of repeated quantum measurements of magnetic flux in superconducting circuits manifesting tunneling is discussed. The perturbation due to the previous measurements of magnetic flux is always present unless quantum nondemolition measurements are performed. By replacing the classical notion of noninvasivity with this condition, temporal Bell-like inequalities allows one to test the observability at the macroscopic level of the conflict between realism and quantum theory.
We propose a way for implementing quantum information transfer with two superconducting flux qubits, by coupling them to a resonator. This proposal does not require adjustment of the level spacings or uniformity in the device parameters. Moreover, neither adiabatic passage nor a second-order detuning is needed by this proposal, thus the operation can be performed much faster when compared with the previous proposals.
Current superconducting quantum processors require strategies for coping with material defects and imperfect parameter targeting in order to scale up while maintaining high performance. To that end, in-situ control of qubit frequencies with magnetic flux can be used to avoid spurious resonances. However, increased dephasing due to 1/f flux noise limits performance at all of these operating points except for noise-protected sweet spots, which are sparse under DC flux bias and monochromatic flux modulation. Here we experimentally demonstrate that two-tone flux modulation can be used to create a …
Superconducting flux qubits are a promising candidate for realizing quantum information processing and quantum simulations. Such devices behave like artificial atoms, with the advantage that one can easily tune the "atoms" internal properties. Here, by harnessing this flexibility, we propose a technique to minimize the inhomogeneous broadening of a large ensemble of flux qubits by tuning only the external flux. In addition, as an example of many-body physics in such an ensemble, we show how to observe superradiance, and its quadratic scaling with ensemble size, using a tailored microwave contr…
Superconducting qubits with in-situ tunable properties are important for constructing a quantum computer. Qubit tunability, however, often comes at the expense of increased noise sensitivity. Here, we propose a flux-tunable superconducting qubit that minimizes the dephasing due to magnetic flux noise by engineering controllable flux "sweet spots" at frequencies of interest. This is realized by using a SQUID with asymmetric Josephson junctions shunted by a superinductor formed from an array of junctions. Taking into account correlated global and local noises, it is possible to improve dephasing…
Recent experiments on Landau-Zener interference in multilevel superconducting flux qubits revealed various interesting characteristics, which have been studied theoretically in our recent work by simply using rate equation method [PRB 79, 094529, (2009)]. In this note we extend this method to the same system but with larger driving amplitude and higher driving frequency. The results show various anomalous characteristics, some of which have been observed in a recent work.
We present a way to realize quantum information transfer with superconducting flux qubits coupled to a cavity. Because only resonant qubit-cavity interaction and resonant qubit-pulse interaction are applied, the information transfer can be performed much faster, when compared with the previous proposals. This proposal does not require adjustment of the qubit level spacings during the operation. Moreover, neither uniformity in the device parameters nor exact placement of qubits in the cavity is needed by this proposal.
We control transition frequency of a superconducting flux qubit coupled to a frequency-tunable resonator comprising a direct current superconducting quantum interference device (dc-SQUID) by microwave driving. The dc-SQUID mediates the coupling between microwave photons in the resonator and a flux qubit. The polarity of the frequency shift depends on the sign of the flux bias for the qubit and can be both positive and negative. The absolute value of the frequency shift becomes larger by increasing the photon number in the resonator. These behaviors are reproduced by a model considering the mag…
Scaling up superconducting quantum processors with optimized performance requires a sufficient flexibility in the choice of operating points for single and two qubit gates to maximize their fidelity and cope with imperfections. Flux control is an efficient technique to manipulate the parameters of tunable qubits, in particular to activate entangling gates. At flux sensitive points of operation, the ubiquitous presence of 1/f flux noise however gives rise to dephasing by inducing fluctuations of the qubit frequency. We show how two-tone modulation of the flux bias, a bichromatic modulation, giv…
Improving the accuracy of circuit quantization using the electromagnetic properties of superconductors
Seoul National University（首尔大学）；Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science（韩国标准科学研究院）；Quantum Devices Labs, Korea Advanced Nano Fab Center（韩国先进纳米制造中心量子器件实验室）；Quantum Design Korea（量子设计韩国公司）；SKKU Adavanced Institute of Nanotechnology, Sungkyunkwan University（成均馆大学SKKU纳米技术高级研究所）
A hybrid quantum system consisting of spatially separated two-level atoms is studied. Two atoms do not interact directly, but they are coupled via an intermediate system which is consisting of a superconducting flux qubit interacting with a mechanical and an electrical resonator which are coupled to one of the atoms. Moreover, the superconducting flux qubit is driven by a classical microwave field. Applying the adiabatic elimination an effective Hamiltonian for the atomic subsystem is obtained. Our results demonstrate that the entanglement degradation decay as well as the fidelity decay in the…
We proposed an analytical model to analyze the Landau-Zener interference in a multilevel superconducting flux qubit driven by large amplitude external fields. Our analytical results agree remarkably with those of the experiment [Nature 455, 51 (2008)]. Moreover, we studied the effect of driving-frequency and dephasing rate on the interference. The dephasing generally destroys the interference while increasing frequency rebuilds the interference at large dephasing rate. At certain driving frequency and dephasing rate, the interference shows some anomalous features as observed in recent experime…
A novel kind of nonlocal, macroscopic Aharonov-Bohm effect involving two topologically linked superconducting rings made out of two different materials, namely, lead and tin, is suggested for experimental observation, in which the lead ring is a torus containing a core composed of permanently magnetized ferromagnetic material. It is predicted that the remnant fields in a hysteresis loop induced by the application of a magnetic field imposed by a large external pair of Helmholtz coils upon the tin ring, will be asymmetric with respect to the origin of the loop. An appendix based on Feynman's pa…
The ubiquitous presence of $1/f$ flux noise was a significant barrier to long-coherence in superconducting qubits until the development of qubits that could operate in static, flux noise insensitive configurations commonly referred to as `sweet-spots'. Several proposals for entangling gates in superconducting qubits tune the flux bias away from these spots, thus reintroducing the dephasing problem to varying degrees. Here we revisit one such proposal, where interactions are parametrically activated by rapidly modulating the flux bias of the qubits around these sweet-spots, and study the effect…
An electron-positron pair ($e^- e^+$) is created in vacuum above a critical electric field strength $E_{crt}$ which is quite large in the laboratory scale. The photon, thus the field, annihilates in the pair creation process. Here, we question if the pair creation (at $E=E_{crt}$) introduces a boundary condition in the electromagnetic state, e.g., similar to the one in angular or linear momentum. We show that introduction of such a reasonable condition yields approximately the well-known magnetic flux quanta which normally one obtains using different arguments.
In the quest to produce quantum technology, superconducting networks, working at temperatures just above absolute zero, have arisen as one of the most promising physical implementations. The precise analysis and synthesis of such circuits have required merging the fields of physics, engineering, and mathematics. In this dissertation, we develop mathematically consistent and precise Hamiltonian models to describe ideal superconducting networks made of an arbitrary number of lumped elements, such as capacitors, inductors, Josephson and phase-slip junctions, gyrators, etc., and distributed ones l…
We theoretically study a circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) architecture with superconducting flux qubits. The qubit is coupled to the transmission line resonator by an ac current originating from the current mode of the resonator. Ultrastrong coupling can be obtained by varying the capacitance between the qubit and the resonator. We propose a scalable design where the two-qubit coupling can be achieved.
By placing an atom into a cavity, the electromagnetic mode structure of the cavity is modified. In Cavity QED, one manifestation of this phenomenon is the appearance of a gauge-dependent diamagnetic term, known as the $A^2$ contribution. Although in atomic Cavity QED, the resulting modification in the eigenmodes is negligible, in recent superconducting circuit realizations, such corrections can be observable and may have qualitative implications. We revisit the canonical quantization procedure of a circuit QED system consisting of a single superconducting transmon qubit coupled to a multimode …
We have studied the impact of low-frequency magnetic flux noise upon superconducting transmon qubits with various levels of tunability. We find that qubits with weaker tunability exhibit dephasing that is less sensitive to flux noise. This insight was used to fabricate qubits where dephasing due to flux noise was suppressed below other dephasing sources, leading to flux-independent dephasing times T2* ~ 15 us over a tunable range of ~340 MHz. Such tunable qubits have the potential to create high-fidelity, fault-tolerant qubit gates and fundamentally improve scalability for a quantum processor.
A composite system of Majorana-hosted semiconductor nanowire and superconducting flux qubit is inves- tigated. It is found that the coupling between these two subsystems can be controlled electrically, supplying a convenient method to implement π/8 phase gate of a Majorana-based topological qubit. We also present a scheme to transfer information from the flux qubit to the topological qubit using Landau-Zener transition. In addition, a structure named top-flux-flux is proposed to retrieve the information stored in the topological qubit. With the demonstration of the entanglement of two topologi…
We propose a method to achieve coherent coupling between Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond and superconducting (SC) flux qubits. The resulting coupling can be used to create a coherent interaction between the spin states of distant NV centers mediated by the flux qubit. Furthermore, the magnetic coupling can be used to achieve a coherent transfer of quantum information between the flux qubit and an ensemble of NV centers. This enables a long-term memory for a SC quantum processor and possibly an interface between SC qubits and light.
We study a readout scheme of superconducting flux qubit state with a Cooper pair box as a transmon. The qubit states consist of the superpositions of two degenerate states where the charge and phase degrees of freedom are entangled. Owing to the robustness of transmon against external fluctuations, our readout scheme enables the quantum non-demolition and single-shot measurement of flux qubit states. The qubit state readout can be performed by using the non-linear Josephson amplifiers after a $π/2$-rotation driven by an ac-electric field.
We proposed a new method to measure the energy spectrum of a superconducting flux qubit. Different from the conventional frequency spectroscopy, a short triangle pulse is used to drive the qubit through the anticrossing and generates Landau-Zener-Stückelberg interference patterns, from which the information of the energy spectrum can be extracted. Without installing microwave lines one can simplify the experimental setup and reduce the unwanted effects of noise. Moreover, the method can be applied to other quantum systems, opening the possibility of calibrating and manipulating qubits with lin…
We report single-shot readout of a superconducting flux qubit by using a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA). After optimizing the readout power, gain of the JPA and timing of the data acquisition, we observe the Rabi oscillations with a contrast of 74% which is mainly limited by the bandwidth of the JPA and the energy relaxation of the qubit. The observation of quantum jumps between the qubit eigenstates under continuous monitoring indicates the nondestructiveness of the readout scheme.
We present exact numerical calculations of supercurrent density, inductance, and impurity-induced flux noise of cylindrical superconducting wires in the nonlocal Pippard regime, which occurs when the Pippard coherence length is larger than the London penetration depth. In this regime the supercurrent density displays a peak away from the surface, and changes sign inside the superconductor, signalling a breakdown of the usual approximation of local London electrodynamics with a renormalized penetration depth. Our calculations show that the internal inductance and the bulk flux noise power is en…
Digital Predistortion for Flux Control of Tunable Superconducting Qubits
Quantum Engineering Solutions (QES), Keysight Technologies Inc.（Keysight Technologies Inc.）；Abdus Salam Centre for Theoretical Physics, Imperial College London（伦敦帝国理工学院阿卜杜斯·萨拉姆理论物理中心）；Division of Physics and Applied Physics, Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学物理与应用物理系）；Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore（新加坡国立大学量子技术中心）
We propose a hybrid quantum system, where an $LC$ resonator inductively interacts with a flux qubit and is capacitively coupled to a Rydberg atom. Varying the external magnetic flux bias controls the flux-qubit flipping and the flux qubit-resonator interface. The atomic spectrum is tuned via an electrostatic field, manipulating the qubit-state transition of atom and the atom-resonator coupling. Different types of entanglement of superconducting, photonic, and atomic qubits can be prepared via simply tuning the flux bias and electrostatic field, leading to the implementation of three-qubit Toff…
The quantum states of flux qubit is suggested to observe with the help of a new device, the superconducting differential double contour interferometer (DDCI). The flux qubit and the superconducting quantum interference device (DC-SQUID) are connected in the DDCI through the phase of the wave function rather than through magnetic flux. The critical current of DC-SQUID should change to the maximum value at the change of the flux qubit state thanks to this phase coupling. A large jump in the critical current and voltage enables to observe continuously the change in time the state of the flux qubi…
We present a new readout method for a superconducting flux qubit, based on the measurement of the Josephson inductance of a superconducting quantum interference device that is inductively coupled to the qubit. The intrinsic flux detection efficiency and back-action are suitable for a fast and nondestructive determination of the quantum state of the qubit, as needed for readout of multiple qubits in a quantum computer. We performed spectroscopy of a flux qubit and we measured relaxation times of the order of 80 $μs$.
We report on electron spin resonance spectroscopy measurements using a superconducting flux qubit with a sensing volume of 6 fl. The qubit is read out using a frequency-tunable Josephson bifurcation amplifier, which leads to an inferred measurement sensitivity of about 20 spins in a 1 s measurement. This sensitivity represents an order of magnitude improvement when compared with flux-qubit schemes using a dc-SQUID switching readout. Furthermore, noise spectroscopy reveals that the sensitivity is limited by flicker ($1/f$) flux noise.
Quasiparticle tunneling across a Josephson junction sets a limit for the lifetime of a superconducting qubit state. We develop a general theory of the corresponding decay rate in a qubit controlled by a magnetic flux. The flux affects quasiparticles tunneling amplitudes, thus making the decay rate flux-dependent. The theory is applicable for an arbitrary quasiparticle distribution. It provides estimates for the rates in practically important quantum circuits and also offers a new way of measuring the phase-dependent admittance of a Josephson junction.
We study a voltage-controlled version of the superconducting flux qubit [Chiorescu et al., Science 299, 1869 (2003)] and show that full control of qubit rotations on the entire Bloch sphere can be achieved. Circuit graph theory is used to study a setup where voltage sources are attached to the two superconducting islands formed between the three Josephson junctions in the flux qubit. Applying a voltage allows qubit rotations about the y axis, in addition to pure x and z rotations obtained in the absence of applied voltages. The orientation and magnitude of the rotation axis on the Bloch sphere…
We present a readout method for superconducting flux qubits. The qubit quantum flux state can be measured by determining the Josephson inductance of an inductively coupled DC superconducting quantum interference device (DC-SQUID). We determine the response function of the DC-SQUID and its back-action on the qubit during measurement. Due to driving, the qubit energy relaxation rate depends on the spectral density of the measurement circuit noise at sum and difference frequencies of the qubit Larmor frequency and SQUID driving frequency. The qubit dephasing rate is proportional to the spectral d…
