We analyze how decoherence appears in the I-V characteristics of a voltage-biased single-Cooper-pair transistor. Especially the effect on resonant single or several Cooper-pair tunneling is studied. We consider both a symmetric and an asymmetric transistor. As a decoherence source we use a small resistive impedance (Re[Z(w)]<<R_Q=h/4e^2) in series with the transistor, which provides both thermal and quantum fluctuations of the voltage. Additional decoherence sources are quasiparticle tunneling across the Josephson junctions and quantum f-noise caused by spurious charge fluctuators nearby the island. The analysis is based on a real-time diagrammatic technique which includes Zeno-like effects in the charge transport, where the tunneling is slowed down due to strong decoherence. As compared to the Pauli-master-equation treatment of the problem, the present results are more consistent with experiments where many of the predicted sharp resonant structures are missing or weakened due to decoherence.
A superconducting tunnel junction is used to directly extract quasiparticles from one of the leads of a single-Cooper-pair-transistor. The consequent reduction in quasiparticle density causes a lower rate of quasiparticle tunneling onto the device. This rate is directly measured by radio-frequency reflectometry. Local cooling may be of direct benefit in reducing the effect of quasiparticles on coherent superconducting nanostructures.
We have measured, in real time, individual quasiparticle tunneling in a single Cooper pair transistor, using rf reflectometry on the supercurrent branch. We have extracted the even-to-odd and odd-to-even transition rates directly by analyzing the distributions of dwell times in the even and odd states of the transistor. We discuss both the measurement and analysis techniques and report on the temperature and gate dependence of the quasiparticle tunneling rates.
We have fabricated single-Cooper-pair transistors in which the spatial profile of the superconducting gap energy was controlled by oxygen doping. The profile dramatically affects the switching current \textit{vs.} gate voltage curve of the transistor, changing its period from $1e$ to $2e$. A model based on nonequilibrium quasiparticles in the leads explains our results, including the surprising observation that even devices with a clean $2e$ period are ``poisoned'' by small numbers of these quasiparticles.
We present radio-frequency measurements on a single-Cooper-pair-transistor in which individual quasiparticle poisoning events were observed with microsecond temporal resolution. Thermal activation of the quasiparticle dynamics is investigated, and consequently, we are able to determine energetics of the poisoning and un-poisoning processes. In particular, we are able to assign an effective quasiparticle temperature to parameterize the poisoning rate.
We use radio-frequency reflectometry to measure quasiparticle tunneling rates in the single-Cooper-pair-transistor. Devices with and without quasiparticle traps in proximity to the island are studied. A $10^2$ to $10^3$-fold reduction in the quasiparticle tunneling rate onto the island is observed in the case of quasiparticle traps. In the quasiparticle trap samples we also measure a commensurate decrease in quasiparticle tunneling rate off the island.
We have fabricated and measured superconducting single-electron transistors with Al leads and Nb islands. At bias voltages below the gap of Nb we observe clear signatures of resonant tunneling of Cooper pairs, and of Coulomb blockade of the subgap currents due to linewidth broadening of the energy levels in the superconducting density of states of Nb. The experimental results are in good agreement with numerical simulations.
We show that a single-Cooper-pair transistor (SCPT) electrometer emits narrow-band microwave radiation when biased in its sub-gap region. Photo activation of quasiparticle tunneling in a nearby SCPT is used to spectroscopically detect this radiation, in a configuration that closely mimics a qubit-electrometer integrated circuit. We identify emission lines due to Josephson radiation and radiative transport processes in the electrometer, and argue that a dissipative superconducting electrometer can severely disrupt the system it attempts to measure.
We report on the effect of the frequency-locked transfer of single Cooper pairs in a superconducting single-electron Al transistor embedded in a dissipative environment (on-chip Cr resistor of R = 40 kOhm). The transistor was dc voltage biased, and the harmonic signal of frequency f of several MHz was applied to the gate. Due to the substantial rate of relaxation, the unidirectional transfer of single pairs occurred in each junction once per clock cycle and the current plateaus at I = 2ef were developed in the transistor's I-V curves. The mechanisms (supercurrent, Landau-Zener tunneling, quasi…
We analyze tunneling of Cooper pairs across voltage biased asymmetric single-Cooper-pair transistors. Also tunneling of Cooper pairs across two capacitively coupled Cooper-pair boxes is considered, when the capacitive coupling and Cooper pair tunneling are provided by a small Josephson junction between the islands. The theoretical analysis is done at subgap voltages, where the current-voltage characteristics depend strongly on the macroscopic eigenstates of the island(s) and their coupling to the dissipative environment. As the environment we use an impedance which satisfies Re[Z]<<R_Q and a f…
We have investigated the Josephson inductance $L_J$ of a Superconducting Cooper Pair Transistor (SCPT). We traced the inductance using microwave reflection measurements on a tuned resonance circuit in which a SCPT was mounted in parallel to a $ \sim 200$ pH strip line inductance. When the inverse of the Josephson inductance, determined on the charge-phase bias plane for a SCPT with a Josephson to Coulomb energy ratio of $E_J/E_C =1.75$, is integrated over the phase, we obtain a current-phase relation, which is strongly non-sinusoidal near the charge degeneracy point.
The Bloch-oscillating transistor (BOT) is an amplifier that utilizes semiclassical dynamics of states in energy bands under traveling quasimomentum. In a BOT, a single quasiparticle tunneling across a base tunnel junction switches the state of a superconducting tunnel junction to a lower Bloch band, triggering a series of resonant Cooper-pair tunnelings through an emitter Josephson junction (Bloch oscillations). Here, we investigate experimentally and theoretically an alternative realization of this device, based only on superconducting tunnel junctions. We discover new amplification schemes, …
The charge-phase Josephson qubit based on a superconducting single charge transistor inserted in a low-inductance superconducting loop is considered. The loop is inductively coupled to a radio-frequency driven tank circuit enabling the readout of the qubit states by measuring the effective Josephson inductance of the transistor. The effect of qubit dephasing and relaxation due to electric and magnetic control lines as well as the measuring system is evaluated. Recommendations for operation of the qubit in magic points producing minimum decoherence are given.
We examine decoherence effects in the Josephson current of a Cooper pair shuttle. Dephasing due to gate voltage fluctuations can either suppress or enhance the critical current and also change its sign. The current noise spectrum displays a peak at the Josephson coupling energy and shows a phase dependence.
An all-superconductor charge qubit enabling a radio-frequency readout of its quantum state is described. The core element of the setup is a superconducting loop which includes the single-Cooper-pair (Bloch) transistor. This circuit has two functions: First, it operates as a charge qubit with magnetic control of Josephson coupling and electrostatic control of the charge on the transistor island. Secondly, it acts as the transducer of the rf electrometer, which probes the qubit state by measuring the Josephson inductance of the transistor. The evaluation of the basic parameters of this device sh…
The outlook of protected quantum computing spurred enormous progress in the search for topological materials, sustaining a continued race to find the most experimentally feasible platform. Here, we show that one of the simplest quantum circuits, the Cooper-pair transistor, exhibits a nontrivial Chern number which has not yet been discussed, in spite of the exhaustive existing literature. Surprisingly, the resulting quantized current response is robust with respect to a large number of external perturbations, most notably low-frequency charge noise and quasiparticle poisoning. Moreover, the fac…
We have fabricated a Cooper-pair transistor (CPT) with parameters such that for appropriate voltage biases, the sub-gap charge transport takes place via slow tunneling of quasiparticles that link two Josephson-coupled charge manifolds. In between the quasiparticle tunneling events, the CPT behaves essentially like a single Cooper-pair box (SCB). The effective capacitance of a SCB can be defined as the derivative of the induced charge with respect to gate voltage. This capacitance has two parts, the geometric capacitance, C_geom, and the quantum capacitance C_Q. The latter is due to the level a…
The Cooper-pair transistor (CPT), a small superconducting island enclosed between two Josephson weak links, is the atomic building block of various superconducting quantum circuits. Utilizing gate-tunable semiconductor channels as weak links, the energy scale associated with the Josephson tunneling can be changed with respect to the charging energy of the island, tuning the extent of its charge fluctuations. Here, we directly demonstrate this control by mapping the energy level structure of a CPT made of an indium arsenide nanowire (NW) with a superconducting aluminum shell. We extract the dev…
The parity modulation of the ground state of a superconducting island is a direct consequence of the presence of the Cooper pair condensate preferring an even number of charge carriers. The addition energy of an odd, unpaired quasiparticle equals to the superconducting gap, $Δ$, suppressing single electron hopping in the low temperature limit. Controlling the quasiparticle occupation is of fundamental importance for superconducting qubits as single electron tunneling results in decoherence. In particular, topological quantum computation relies on the parity control and readout of Majorana boun…
We show how population inversion (PI) occurs in a two-level system (TLS) while measuring its charge using a capacitively coupled superconducting single-electron transistor (SSET), biased in the subgap regime, where the current through the SSET is carried by different cycles involving tunneling of both Cooper pairs and quasiparticles. The PI is directly associated with the resonant nature of the Cooper-pair tunneling. We also show how the SSET may strongly relax the TLS, although there is negligible current flowing through the SSET, i.e. it is turned off. The calculation of the quantum back-act…
We have studied the microwave response of a single Cooper-pair transistor (CPT) coupled to a lumped-element microwave resonator. The resonance frequency of this circuit, $f_{r}$, was measured as a function of the charge $n_{g}$ induced on the CPT island by the gate electrode, and the phase difference across the CPT, $ϕ_{B}$, which was controlled by the magnetic flux in the superconducting loop containing the CPT. The observed $f_{r}(n_{g},ϕ_{B})$ dependences reflect the variations of the CPT Josephson inductance with $n_{g}$ and $ϕ_{B}$ as well as the CPT excitation when the microwaves induce …
We analyse the quantum dynamics of a micromechanical resonator capacitively coupled to a Cooper box. With appropriate quantum state control of the Cooper box, the resonator can be driven into a superposition of spatially separated states. The Cooper box can also be used to probe the environmentally-induced decoherence of the resonator superposition state.
Quantum phase slip (QPS) is the topological singularity of the complex order parameter of a quasi-one-dimensional superconductor: momentary zeroing of the modulus and simultaneous 'slip' of the phase by 2π. The QPS event(s) are the dynamic equivalent of tunneling through a conventional Josephson junction containing static in space and time weak link(s). Here we demonstrate the operation of a superconducting single electron transistor (Cooper pair transistor) without any tunnel junctions. Instead a pair of thin superconducting titanium wires in QPS regime were used. The current-voltage characte…
Operating the cavity-embedded Cooper pair transistor (cCPT) in the Kerr bistable regime, we demonstrate single-shot resolution between two charge states that are $0.09e$ apart. The measurement is performed with 94$\%$ fidelity in a duration of 3 $μ$s. The drive power at which the measurement is performed corresponds to only 20 intracavity photons on average in the high oscillation amplitude state of the cCPT, which is orders-of-magnitude smaller than that in rf-SETs. We find that the limiting factor for this mode of operation of the cCPT is the spontaneous fluctuation-induced switching between…
Charge fluctuations from gate bias and background traps severely limit the performance of a charge qubit in a Cooper-pair box (CPB). Here we present an experimentally realizable method to control the decoherence effects of these charge fluctuations using two strongly capacitively coupled CPBs. This coupled-box system has a low-decoherence subspace of two states. Our results show that the inter-box Coulomb correlation can help significantly suppress decoherence of this two-level system, making it a promising candidate as a logical qubit, encoded using two CPBs.
We introduce the cavity-embedded Cooper pair transistor (cCPT), a device which behaves as a highly nonlinear microwave cavity whose resonant frequency can be tuned both by charging a gate capacitor and by threading flux through a SQUID loop. We characterize this device and find excellent agreement between theory and experiment. A key difficulty in this characterization is the presence of frequency fluctuations comparable in scale to the cavity linewidth, which deform our measured resonance circles in accordance with recent theoretical predictions [Brock et al., Phys. Rev. Applied 14, 054026 (2…
Using an operator scattering approach, we analyze the quantum dynamics of an ultrasensitive electrometer -- a Cooper pair transistor embedded in a quarter-wave microwave cavity (cCPT). While the cCPT is inherently a tunable, strongly nonlinear system affording a diverse range of functionalities, we restrict our present analysis to a necessary first investigation of its linear charge sensing capabilities, limiting to low pump powers corresponding to an average cavity photon number $\lesssim 1$. Assuming realizable cCPT parameters (B. L. Brock et al., Phys. Rev. Applied, 044009), and not includi…
Parity control of superconducting islands hosting Majorana zero modes (MZMs) is required to operate topological qubits made from proximitized semiconductor nanowires. We, therefore, study parity effects in hybrid InAs-Al single-Cooper-pair transistors (SCPTs) as a first step. In particular, we investigate the gate-charge supercurrent modulation and observe a consistent 2$e$-periodic pattern indicating a general lack of low-energy subgap states in these nanowires at zero magnetic field. In a parallel magnetic field, an even-odd pattern develops with a gate-charge spacing that oscillates as a fu…
We study a Cooper-pair transistor realized by two Josephson weak links that enclose a superconducting island in an InSb-Al hybrid nanowire. When the nanowire is subject to a magnetic field, isolated subgap levels arise in the superconducting island and, due to the Coulomb blockade,mediate a supercurrent by coherent co-tunneling of Cooper pairs. We show that the supercurrent resulting from such co-tunneling events exhibits, for low to moderate magnetic fields, a phase offset that discriminates even and odd charge ground states on the superconducting island. Notably,this phase offset persists wh…
We discuss coherent transport of Cooper pairs through a Cooper pair shuttle. We analyze both the DC and AC Josephson effect in the two limiting cases where the charging energy $E_C$ is either much larger or much smaller than the Josephson coupling $E_J$. In the limit $E_J \ll E_C$ we present the detailed behavior of the critical current as a function of the damping rates and the dynamical phases. The AC effect in this regime is very sensitive to all dynamical scales present in the problem. The effect of fluctuations of the external periodic driving is discussed as well. In the opposite regime …
Deep submicron Al-AlOx-Nb tunnel junctions and single electron transistors with niobium islands were fabricated by electron beam gun shadow evaporation. Using stencil masks consisting of the thermostable polymer polyethersulfone (PES) and germanium, high quality niobium patterns with good superconducting properties and a gap energy of up to 2Delta = 2.5 meV for the niobium were achieved. The I(U) characteristics of the transistors show special features due to tunneling of single Cooper pairs and significant gate modulation in both the superconducting and the normal state.
We have fabricated and characterized a new type of electrometer that couples two parallel single-electron transistors (SETs) to a radio-frequency tank circuit for use as a differential RF-SET. We demonstrate operation of this device in summing, differential, and single-SET operation modes, and use it to measure a Coulomb staircase from a differential single Cooper-pair box. In differential mode, the device is sensitive to uncorrelated input signals while screening out correlated ones.
We calculate the charge sensitivity of a recently demonstrated device where the Josephson inductance of a single Cooper-pair transistor is measured. We find that the intrinsic limit to detector performance is set by oscillator quantum noise. Sensitivity better than $10^{-6}$e$/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ is possible with a high $Q$-value $\sim 10^3$, or using a SQUID amplifier. The model is compared to experiment, where charge sensitivity $3 \times 10^{-5}$e$/\sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ and bandwidth 100 MHz are achieved.
The Josephson quasiparticle (JQP) cycle in a voltage-biased superconducting single-electron transistor (SSET) combines coherent Cooper pair tunneling with incoherent quasiparticle decay. We have measured the influence of current flow through an independently-biased SSET on the JQP cycle when the two SSET's have a strong mutual capacitive coupling. We find, among other effects, that the JQP current in one SSET is enhanced by the presence of a quasiparticle current in the other SSET. A simplified model of the coupled-SSET system is presented which reproduces the enhancement effect.
We study a superconducting single-charge transistor, where the coherence of Cooper pair tunneling is destroyed by the coupling to a tunable dissipative environment. Sequential tunneling and cotunneling processes are analyzed to construct the shape of the conductance peaks and their dependence on the dissipation and temperature. Unexpected features are found due to a cross-over between two distinct regimes, one `environment-assisted' the other `environment-dominated'. Several of the predictions have been confirmed by recent experiments. The model and results apply also to the dynamics of Joseph…
We have directly measured the quantum noise of a superconducting single-electron transistor (S-SET) embedded in a microwave resonator consisting of a superconducting LC tank circuit. Using an effective bath description, we find that the S-SET provides damping of the resonator modes proportional to its differential conductance and has an effective temperature that depends strongly on the S-SET bias conditions. In the vicinity of a double Cooper pair resonance, when both resonances are red detuned the S-SET effective temperature can be well below both the ambient temperature and the energy scale…
We investigate a superconducting single-electron transistor capacitively coupled to a nanomechanical oscillator and focus on the double Josephson quasiparticle resonance. The existence of two coherent Cooper pair tunneling events is shown to lead to pronounced backaction effects. Measuring the current and the shot noise provides a direct way of gaining information on the state of the oscillator. In addition to an analytical discussion of the linear-response regime, we discuss and compare results of higher-order approximation schemes and a fully numerical solution. We find that cooling of the m…
We introduce a method where successive coordinate transformations are applied to decrease the error in the adiabatic master equation resulting from truncation in the local adiabatic parameter. Our method reduces the nonphysical behaviour stemming from the lack of complete positivity. The strong environment-induced relaxation at high Cooper pair pumping frequencies leads to adiabatic ground-state pumping only in the lowest-order approximation. We illustrate the robustness of the frequency where the adiabaticity breaks down using the high-order theory and show the emergence of an optimal environ…
We investigate quantum noise effect on the transportation of nonlocal Cooper pairs accross the realistic Andreev entangler which consists of an s-wave superconductor coupled to two small quantum dots at resonance which themselves are coupled to normal leads. The noise emerges due to voltage fluctuations felt by the electrons residing on the two dots as a result of the finite resistances in the gate leads or of any resistive lead capacitively coupled to the dots. In the ideal noiseless case, the setup provides a trustable source of mobile and nonlocal spin-entangled electrons and the transport …
We have studied charge transport in a one-dimensional chain of small Josephson junctions using a single-electron transistor. We observe a crossover from time-correlated tunneling of single electrons to that of Cooper pairs as a function of both magnetic field and current. At relatively high magnetic field, single-electron transport dominates and the tunneling frequency is given by f=I/e, where I is the current through the chain and e is the electron's charge. As the magnetic field is lowered, the frequency gradually shifts to f=I/2e for I>200 fA, indicating Cooper-pair transport. For the param…
We study the quantum charge noise and measurement properties of the double Cooper pair resonance point in a superconducting single-electron transistor (SSET) coupled to a Josephson charge qubit. Using a density matrix approach for the coupled system, we obtain a full description of the measurement back-action; for weak coupling, this is used to extract the quantum charge noise. Unlike the case of a non-superconducting SET, the back-action here can induce population inversion in the qubit. We find that the Cooper pair resonance process allows for a much better measurement than a similar non-sup…
Two different types of Cooper pair transistors, with Al and Nb islands, have been investigated in a tunable electromagnetic environment. The device with an Al island demonstrates gate charge modulation with 2e-periodicity in a wide range of environmental impedances at bath temperatures below 340 mK. Contrary to the results of the Al sample, we were not able to detect 2e-periodicity under any conditions on similar samples with Nb island. We attribute this to the material properties of Nb.
Single-electron transistors have been proposed to be used as a read-out device for Cooper pair charge qubits. Here we show that a coupled superconducting transistor at a threshold voltage is much more effective in measuring the state of a qubit than a normal-metal transistor at the same voltage range. The effect of the superconducting gap is to completely block the current through the transistor when the qubit is in the logical state 1, compared to the mere diminishment of the current in the normal-metal case. The time evolution of the system is solved when the measuring device is driven out o…
We present experiments on single Cooper-pair transistors made of two different superconducting materials. We chose Ti and Al to create an energy gap profile such that the island has a higher gap than the leads, thereby acting as a barrier to quasiparticle tunneling. Our transport measurements demonstrate that quasiparticle poisoning is suppressed in all our TiAlTi structures (higher gap for the island) with clear 2e periodicity observed, whereas full quasiparticle poisoning is observed in all AlTiAl devices (higher gap for the leads) with e periodicity.
We have employed a tunable Cooper-pair transistor, the sluice, with radio frequency control to pump current over a resistive circuit. We find that the charge transferred per pumping cycle can be controlled with the resolution of a single Cooper-pair up to hundreds of pairs. The achieved nanoampere current features more than an order of magnitude improvement over the previously reported results and it is close to the theoretical maximum value for the measured sample.
Within the context of superconducting gap engineering, Al-\alox-Al tunnel junctions have been used to study the variation in superconducting gap, $Δ$, with film thickness. Films of thickness 5, 7, 10 and 30 nm were used to form the small area superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) tunnel junctions. In agreement with previous measurements we have observed an increase in the superconducting energy gap of aluminium with a decrease in film thickness. In addition, we find grain size in small area films with thickness \textbf{$\geq$} 10 nm has no appreciable effect on energy gap. Finally, we …
In their original formulation of superconductivity, the London brothers predicted the exponential suppression of an $electrostatic$ field inside a superconductor over the so-called London penetration depth, $λ_L$. Despite a few experiments indicating hints of perturbation induced by electrostatic fields, no clue has been provided so far on the possibility to manipulate metallic superconductors via field-effect. Here we report field-effect control of the supercurrent in $all$-metallic transistors made of different Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superconducting thin films. At low temperature, o…
The advent of quantum optical techniques based on superconducting circuits has opened new regimes in the study of the non-linear interaction of light with matter. Of particular interest has been the creation of non-classical states of light, which are essential for continuous-variable quantum information processing, and could enable quantum-enhanced measurement sensitivity. Here we demonstrate a device consisting of a superconducting artificial atom, the Cooper pair transistor, embedded in a superconducting microwave cavity that may offer a path toward simple, continual production of non-class…
Josephson junction transistors and 50-junction arrays with linear junction dimensions from 200 nm down to 70 nm were fabricated from standard Nb/AlOx/Nb trilayers. The fabrication process includes electron beam lithography, dry etching, anodization, and planarization by chemical-mechanical polishing. The samples were characterized at temperatures down to 25 mK. In general, all junctions are of high quality and their I-U characteristics show low leakage currents and high superconducting energy gap values of 1.35 meV. The characteristics of the transistors and arrays exhibit some features in the…
The rapid experimental progress in the field of superconducting nanocircuits gives rise to an increasing quest for advanced quantum-control techniques for these macroscopically coherent systems. Here we demonstrate theoretically that stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) should be possible with the quantronium setup of a Cooper-pair box. The scheme appears to be robust against decoherence and should be realizable even with the existing technology. As an application we present a method to generate single-phonon states of a nanomechnical resonator by vacuum-stimulated adiabatic passage wit…
The origin of continuous energy spectra in large disordered interacting quantum systems is one of the key unsolved problems in quantum physics. While small quantum systems with discrete energy levels are noiseless and stay coherent forever in the absence of any coupling to external world, most large-scale quantum systems are able to produce thermal bath and excitation decay. This intrinsic decoherence is manifested by a broadening of energy levels which aquire a finite width. The important question is what is the driving force and the mechanism of transition(s) between two different types of m…
We investigated both theoretically and experimentally dynamic features of a phase-biased charge qubit consisting of a single-Cooper-pair transistor closed by a superconducting loop. The effective inductance of the qubit was probed by a high-quality tank circuit. In the presence of a microwave power, with a frequency of the order of the qubit energy level separation, an alteration of the qubit inductance was observed. We demonstrate that this effect is caused by the redistribution of the qubit level population. The excitation of the qubit by one-, two-, and three-photon processes was detected. …
We show that superconductors have a thin spectrum associated with spontaneous symmetry breaking similar to that of antiferromagnets, while still being in full agreement with Elitzur's theorem, which forbids the spontaneous breaking of local (gauge) symmetries. This thin spectrum in the superconductors consists of in-gap states that are associated with the spontaneous breaking of a global phase symmetry. In qubits based on mesoscopic superconducting devices, the presence of the thin spectrum implies a maximum coherence time which is proportional to the number of Cooper pairs in the device. Here…
We are suggesting an electronic method for Cooper pair mass spectroscopy of thin superconducting films. The method can be applied, for example, for 100 nm thin high-T_c films grown on insulator substrate 10 mm X 10 mm. In Corbino geometry two Ohmic contacts have to be made on the film evaporating Ag or using silver paste: one circle with radius r_a (1) and a ring electrode with internal radius r_b (2). In the in-between space (r_a,r_b) a ring electrode from mylar assures a capacitive connection between the superconducting layer and the metallized surface (3) of the mylar. In such a way we have…
We demonstrate the operation of a differential single Cooper-pair box, a charge qubit consisting of two aluminum islands, isolated from ground, coupled by a pair of small-area Josephson junctions, and read out with a superconducting differential radio-frequency single electron transistor. We have tested four devices, all of which show evidence of quasiparticle poisoning. The devices are characterized with microwave spectroscopy and temperature dependence studies, and Coulomb staircases are shown to be e-periodic in all samples. However, coherent control is still possible with non-adiabatic vol…
A novel experiment for determination of the charge related to vortices in thin superconducting film is proposed and a number of related experimental set-ups are also theoretically considered. The methods are based on the Torricelli-Bernoulli effect in superconductors and the phenomenology of the effect is briefly discussed. The vortex charge is expressed via the effective mass of the Cooper pairs, thus both parameters, inaccessible by now, could be simultaneously determined. The experiment would require layered metal-insulator-superconductor structures and standard electronics employed in kine…
The angular momentum or vorticity of Cooper pairs is shown to affect strongly the charge transfer through a small superconducting (S) island of a single electron transistor. This interplay of charge and rotational degrees of freedom in a mesoscopic superconductor occurs through the effect of vorticity on the quantum mechanical spectrum of electron-hole excitations. The subgap quasiparticle levels in vortices can host an additional electron, thus, suppressing the so-called parity effect in the S island. We propose to measure this interaction between the quantized vorticity and electric charge v…
Identifying, quantifying, and suppressing decoherence mechanisms in qubits are important steps towards the goal of engineering a quantum computer or simulator. Superconducting circuits offer flexibility in qubit design; however, their performance is adversely affected by quasiparticles (broken Cooper pairs). Developing a quasiparticle mitigation strategy compatible with scalable, high-coherence devices is therefore highly desirable. Here we experimentally demonstrate how to control quasiparticle generation by downsizing the qubit, capping it with a metallic cover, and equipping it with suitabl…
