Electrons travelling in free space have allowed to explore fundamental physics like the wave nature of matter, the Aharonov-Bohm and the Hanbury Brown-Twiss effect. Complementarily, the precise control over the external degrees of freedom of electrons has proven pivotal for wholly new types of experiments such as high precision measurements of the electron's mass and magnetic moment in Penning traps. Interestingly, the confinement of electrons in the purely electric field of an alternating quadrupole has rarely been considered. Recent advances in the development of planar chip-based ion traps suggest that this technology can be applied to enable entirely new experiments with electron beams guided in versatile potentials. Here we demonstrate the transverse confinement of a low energy electron beam in a linear quadrupole guide based on microstructured planar electrodes and driven at microwave frequencies. A new guided matter-wave system will result, with applications ranging from electron interferometry to novel non-invasive electron microscopy.
We present an omnidirectional matter wave guide on an atom chip. The rotational symmetry of the guide is maintained by a combination of two current carrying wires and a bias field pointing perpendicular to the chip surface. We demonstrate guiding of thermal atoms around more than two complete turns along a spiral shaped 25mm long curved path (curve radii down to 200$μ$m) at various atom--surface distances (35-450$μ$m). An extension of the scheme for the guiding of Bose-Einstein condensates is outlined.
We describe a scheme to coherently convert a microwave photon of a superconducting co-planar waveguide resonator to an optical photon emitted into a well-defined temporal and spatial mode. The conversion is realized by a cold atomic ensemble trapped above the surface of the superconducting atom chip, near the antinode of the microwave cavity. The microwave photon couples to a strong Rydberg transition of the atoms that are also driven by a pair of laser fields with appropriate frequencies and wavevectors for an efficient wave-mixing process. With only few thousand atoms in an ensemble of moder…
We propose a two-qubit collisional phase gate that can be implemented with available atom chip technology, and present a detailed theoretical analysis of its performance. The gate is based on earlier phase gate schemes, but uses a qubit state pair with an experimentally demonstrated, very long coherence lifetime. Microwave near-fields play a key role in our implementation as a means to realize the state-dependent potentials required for conditional dynamics. Quantum control algorithms are used to optimize gate performance. We employ circuit configurations that can be built with current fabrica…
We present a design for a superconducting, on-chip circulator composed of dynamically modulated transfer switches and delays. Design goals are set for the multiplexed readout of superconducting qubits. Simulations of the device show that it allows for low-loss circulation (insertion loss < 0.35 dB and isolation >20 dB) over an instantaneous bandwidth of 2.3 GHz. As the device is estimated to be linear for input powers up to -65 dBm, this design improves on the bandwidth and power-handling of previous superconducting circulators by over a factor of 50, making it ideal for integration with broad…
Entanglement-based technologies, such as quantum information processing, quantum simulations, and quantum-enhanced metrology, have the potential to revolutionise our way of computing and measuring and help clarifying the puzzling concept of entanglement itself. Ultracold atoms on atom chips are attractive for their implementation, as they provide control over quantum systems in compact, robust, and scalable setups. An important tool in this system is a potential depending on the internal atomic state. Coherent dynamics in this potential combined with collisional interactions allows entanglemen…
The scaleup of quantum computers operating in the microwave domain requires advanced control electronics, and the use of integrated components that operate at the temperature of the quantum devices is potentially beneficial. However, such an approach requires ultra-low power dissipation and high signal quality in order to ensure quantum-coherent operations. Here, we report an on-chip device that is based on a Josephson junction coupled to a spiral resonator and is capable of coherent continuous-wave microwave emission. We show that characteristics of the device accurately follow a theory based…
A switch capable of routing microwave signals at cryogenic temperatures is a desirable component for state-of-the-art experiments in many fields of applied physics, including but not limited to quantum information processing, communication and basic research in engineered quantum systems. Conventional mechanical switches provide low insertion loss but disturb operation of dilution cryostats and the associated experiments by heat dissipation. Switches based on semiconductors or microelectromechanical systems have a lower thermal budget but are not readily integrated with current superconducting…
Nonreciprocal circuit elements form an integral part of modern measurement and communication systems. Mathematically they require breaking of time-reversal symmetry, typically achieved using magnetic materials and more recently using the quantum Hall effect, parametric permittivity modulation or Josephson nonlinearities. Here, we demonstrate an on-chip magnetic-free circulator based on reservoir engineered optomechanical interactions. Directional circulation is achieved with controlled phase-sensitive interference of six distinct electro-mechanical signal conversion paths. The presented circul…
Quantum microwave photonics aims at generating, routing, and manipulating propagating quantum microwave fields in the spirit of optical photonics. To this end, the strong nonlinearities of superconducting quantum circuits can be used to either improve or move beyond the implementation of concepts from the optical domain. In this context, the design of a well-controlled broadband environment for the superconducting quantum circuits is a central task. In this work, we place a superconducting transmon qubit in one arm of an on-chip Mach-Zehnder interferometer composed of two superconducting micro…
As the field of quantum computing progresses to larger-scale devices, multiplexing will be crucial to scale quantum processors. While multiplexed readout is common practice for superconducting devices, relatively little work has been reported about the combination of flux and microwave control lines. Here, we present a method to integrate a microwave line and a flux line into a single "XYZ line". This combined control line allows us to perform fast single-qubit gates as well as to deliver flux signals to the qubits. The measured relaxation times of the qubits are comparable to state-of-art dev…
We give a comprehensive overview of the development of micro traps, from the first experiments on guiding atoms using current carrying wires in the early 1990's to the creation of a BEC on an atom chip.
We report guiding and manipulation of charged particle beams by means of electrostatic optics based on a principle similar to the electrodynamic Paul trap. We use hundreds of electrodes fabricated on planar substrates and supplied with static voltages to create a ponderomotive potential for charged particles in motion. Shape and strength of the potential can be locally tailored by the electrodes' layout and the applied voltages, enabling the control of charged particle beams within precisely engineered effective potentials. We demonstrate guiding of electrons and ions for a large range of ener…
Circulators are non-reciprocal circuit elements integral to technologies including radar systems, microwave communication transceivers, and the readout of quantum information devices. Their non-reciprocity arises from the interference of microwaves over the centimetre-scale of the signal wavelength in the presence of bulky magnetic media that break time-reversal symmetry. Here we realize a completely passive on-chip microwave circulator with size one-thousandth the wavelength by exploiting the chiral, slow-light response of a 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) in the quantum Hall regime. For an…
We report a notch-shaped coplanar microwave waveguide antenna on a glass plate designed for on-chip detection of optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) of fluorescent nanodiamonds (NDs). A lithographically patterned thin wire at the center of the notch area in the coplanar waveguide realizes a millimeter-scale ODMR detection area (1.5 x 2.0 mm^2) and gigahertz-broadband characteristics with low reflection (about 8%). The ODMR signal intensity in the detection area is quantitatively predictable by numerical simulation. Using this chip device, we demonstrate a uniform ODMR signal intensity…
We demonstrate the splitting of a low-energy electron beam by means of a microwave pseudopotential formed above a planar chip substrate. Beam splitting arises from smoothly transforming the transverse guiding potential for an electron beam from a single-well harmonic confinement into a double-well, thereby generating two separated output beams with $5\,$mm lateral spacing. Efficient beam splitting is observed for electron kinetic energies up to $3\,$eV, in excellent agreement with particle tracking simulations. We discuss prospects of this novel beam splitter approach for electron-based quantu…
We present equivalent circuits that model the interaction of microwave resonators and quantum systems. The circuit models are derived from a general interaction Hamiltonian. Quantitative agreement between the simulated resonator transmission frequency, qubit Lamb shift and experimental data will be shown. We demonstrate that simple circuit models, using only linear passive elements, can be very useful in understanding systems where a small quantum system is coupled to a classical microwave apparatus.
Optical networks that distribute entanglement among quantum technologies will form a powerful backbone for quantum science but are yet to interface with leading quantum hardware such as superconducting qubits. Consequently, these systems remain isolated because microwave links at room temperature are noisy and lossy. Building connectivity requires interfaces that map quantum information between microwave and optical fields. While preliminary microwave-to-optical (M2O) transducers have been realized, developing efficient, low-noise devices that match superconducting qubit frequencies (gigahertz…
We analyze the design of a potential replacement technology for the commercial ferrite circulators that are ubiquitous in contemporary quantum superconducting microwave experiments. The lossless, lumped element design is capable of being integrated on chip with other superconducting microwave devices, thus circumventing the many performance-limiting aspects of ferrite circulators. The design is based on the dynamic modulation of DC superconducting microwave quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) that function as nearly linear, tunable inductors. The connection to familiar ferrite-based circulat…
The authors report on the design and measurement of a reflective single-pole single-throw microwave switch with no internal power dissipation, based on a superconducting circuit containing a single Josephson junction. The data demonstrate the switch operation with 2 GHz instantaneous bandwidth centered at 10 GHz, low insertion loss, and better than 20 dB on/off ratio. The switch's measured performance agrees well with simulations for input powers up to -100 dBm. An extension of the demonstrated circuit to implement a single-pole double-throw switch is shown in simulation.
We report on the design and performance of an on-chip microwave circulator with a widely (GHz) tunable operation frequency. Non-reciprocity is created with a combination of frequency conversion and delay, and requires neither permanent magnets nor microwave bias tones, allowing on-chip integration with other superconducting circuits without the need for high-bandwidth control lines. Isolation in the device exceeds 20 dB over a bandwidth of tens of MHz, and its insertion loss is small, reaching as low as 0.9 dB at select operation frequencies. Furthermore, the device is linear with respect to i…
Cryogenic Multiplexing Control Chip for Superconducting Quantum Processor
Tsinghua University（清华大学）；Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology（北京信息科学与技术国家研究中心）；Beijing Innovation Center for Future Chips, Tsinghua University（清华大学未来芯片创新中心）
We propose a method to couple metastable flux-based qubits to superconductive resonators based on a quantum-optical Raman excitation scheme that allows for the deterministic generation of stationary and propagating microwave Fock states and other weak quantum fields. Moreover, we introduce a suitable microwave quantum homodyne technique, with no optical counterpart, that enables the measurement of relevant field observables, even in the presence of noisy amplification devices.
This paper presents the characterization of microwave passive components, including metal-oxide-metal (MoM) capacitors, transformers, and resonators, at deep cryogenic temperature (4.2 K). The variations in capacitance, inductance and quality factor are explained in relation to the temperature dependence of the physical parameters and the resulting insights on modeling of passives at cryogenic temperatures are provided. Both characterization and modeling, reported for the first time down to 4.2 K, are essential in designing cryogenic CMOS radio-frequency integrated circuits, a promising candid…
We propose a device architecture capable of direct quantum electro-optical conversion of microwave to optical photons. The hybrid system consists of a planar superconducting microwave circuit coupled to an integrated whispering-gallery-mode microresonator made from an electro-optical material. We show that electro-optical (vacuum) coupling rates $g_0$ as large as$\sim 2π\, \mathcal{O}(10-100)$ kHz are achievable with currently available technology, due to the small mode volume of the planar microwave resonator. Operating at millikelvin temperatures, such a converter would enable high-efficienc…
On-chip scalable integration represents a major challenge for practical quantum devices. One particular challenge is to implement on-chip optical readout of spins in diamond. This readout requires simultaneous application of optical and microwave fields along with an efficient collection of fluorescence. The readout is typically accomplished via bulk optics and macroscopic microwave transmission structures. We experimentally demonstrate an on-chip integrated structure for nitrogen vacancy (NV) spin-based applications, implemented in a single material layer with one patterning step. A nanodiamo…
We develop a scalable architecture for quantum computation using controllable electrons of double-dot molecules coupled to a microwave stripline resonator on a chip, which satisfies all Divincenzo criteria. We analyze the performance and stability of all required operations and emphasize that all techniques are feasible with current experimental technologies.
Hybrid quantum systems involving cold atoms and microwave resonators can enable cavity-mediated infinite-range interactions between atomic spin systems and realize atomic quantum memories and transducers for microwave to optical conversion. To achieve strong coupling of atoms to on-chip microwave resonators, it was suggested to use atomic Rydberg states with strong electric dipole transitions. Here we report on the realization of coherent coupling of a Rydberg transition of ultracold atoms trapped on an integrated superconducting atom chip to the microwave field of an on-chip coplanar waveguid…
We study the nonlinear dynamics of an ensemble of cold trapped atoms with a hyperfine transition magnetically coupled to a resonant microwave cavity mode. Despite the minute single atom coupling one obtains strong coupling between collective hyperfine qubits and microwave photons enabling coherent transfer of an excitation between the long lived atomic qubit state and the mode. Evidence of strong coupling can be obtained from the cavity transmission spectrum even at finite thermal photon number. The system makes it possible to study further prominent collective phenomena such as superradiant d…
Trapping potentials and quantum gates for microwave-dressed Rydberg atoms on an atom chip
Freie Universität Berlin（柏林自由大学）；Center for Quantum Science and Technologies, FORTH（量子科学与技术中心，FORTH）；University of Crete（克里特大学）；German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence（德国人工智能研究中心）；Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen（蒂宾根大学）
An electro-optomechanical device capable of microwave-to-optics conversion has recently been demonstrated, with the vision of enabling optical networks of superconducting qubits. Here we present an improved converter design that uses a three-dimensional (3D) microwave cavity for coupling between the microwave transmission line and an integrated LC resonator on the converter chip. The new design simplifies the optical assembly and decouples it from the microwave part of the setup. Experimental demonstrations show that the modular device assembly allows us to flexibly tune the microwave coupling…
We describe an approach to the high-fidelity measurement of a superconducting qubit using an on-chip microwave photon counter. The protocol relies on the transient response of a dispersively coupled measurement resonator to map the state of the qubit to "bright" and "dark" cavity pointer states that are characterized by a large differential photon occupation. Following this mapping, we photodetect the resonator using the Josephson Photomultipler (JPM), which transitions between classically distinguishable flux states when cavity photon occupation exceeds a certain threshold. Our technique prov…
We study a quantum computing system using microwave photons in transmission line resonators on a superconducting chip as qubits. We show that all control necessary for quantum computing can be implemented by coupling to Josephson devices on the same chip, and take advantage of their strong inherent nonlinearities to realize qubit interactions. We analyze the gate error rate to demonstrate that our scheme is realistic even for Josephson devices with limited decoherence times. A conceptually innovative solution based on existing technologies, our scheme provides an integrated and scalable approa…
Solid-state quantum computers require classical electronics to control and readout individual qubits and to enable fast classical data processing [1-3]. Integrating both subsystems at deep cryogenic temperatures [4], where solid-state quantum processors operate best, may solve some major scaling challenges, such as system size and input/output (I/O) data management [5]. Spin qubits in silicon quantum dots (QDs) could be monolithically integrated with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) electronics using very-large-scale integration (VLSI) and thus leveraging over wide manufacturing …
An on-chip microwave circulator that is compatible with superconducting devices is a key element for scale-up of superconducting circuits. Previous approaches to integrating circulators on chip involve either external driving that requires extra microwave lines or a strong magnetic field that would compromise superconductivity. Here we report the first proof-of-principle realisation of a passive on-chip circulator which is made from a superconducting loop interrupted by three notionally-identical Josephson junctions and is tuned with only DC control fields. Our experimental results shows evide…
Microelectromechanical systems and integrated photonics provide the basis for many reliable and compact circuit elements in modern communication systems. Electro-opto-mechanical devices are currently one of the leading approaches to realize ultra-sensitive, low-loss transducers for an emerging quantum information technology. Here we present an on-chip microwave frequency converter based on a planar aluminum on silicon nitride platform that is compatible with slot-mode coupled photonic crystal cavities. We show efficient frequency conversion between two propagating microwave modes mediated by t…
We propose a design to realize integrated broadband nonreciprocal microwave isolators and circulators using superconducting circuit elements without any magnetic materials. To obtain a broadband response, we develop a waveguide-based design by temporal modulations. The corresponding compact traveling-wave structure is implemented with integrated superconducting composite right-/left-handed transmission lines. The calculations show that the bandwidth of 580 MHz can be realized over a nonreciprocal isolation of 20 dB in reflections. Such on-chip isolators and circulators are useful for cryogenic…
