We study numerically the dynamics of two-qubit gates with superconducting charge qubits. The exact ratio of $E_J$ to $E_L$ and the corresponding operation time are calculated in order to implement two-qubit gates. We investigate the effect of finite rise/fall times of pulses in realization of two-qubit gates. It is found that the error in implementing two-qubit gates grows quadratically in rise/fall times of pulses.
Coherent pulse control for quantum memory is viable in the optical domain but nascent in microwave quantum circuits. We show how to realize coherent storage and on-demand pulse retrieval entirely within a superconducting circuit by exploiting and extending existing electromagnetically induced transparency technology in superconducting quantum circuits. Our scheme employs a linear array of superconducting artificial atoms coupled to a microwave transmission line.
Superconducting quantum circuits, such as the superconducting phase qubit, have multiple quantum states that can interfere with ideal qubit operation. The use of multiple frequency control pulses, resonant with the energy differences of the multi-state system, is theoretically explored. An analytical method to design such control pulses is developed, using a generalization of the Floquet method to multiple frequency controls. This method is applicable to optimizing the control of both superconducting qubits and qudits, and is found to be in excellent agreement with time-dependent numerical sim…
We theoretically investigate the influence of designed pulse sequences in restoring quantum coherence lost due to background noise in superconducting qubits. We consider both 1/f noise and Random Telegraph Noise, and show that the qubit coherence time can be substantially enhanced by carefully engineered pulse sequences. Conversely, the time dependence of qubit coherence under external pulse sequences could be used as a spectroscopic tool for extracting the noise mechanisms in superconducting qubits, i.e. by using Uhrig's pulse sequence one can obtain information about moments of the spectral …
Microwave pulses are used ubiquitously to control and measure qubits fabricated on superconducting circuits. Due to continual environmental coupling, the qubits undergo decoherence both when it is free and during its interaction with the microwave pulse. As quantum logic gates are executed through pulse-qubit interaction, we study theoretically the decoherence-induced effects during the interaction, especially the variations of the pulse, under a dissipative environment with linear spectral distribution. We find that a transmissible pulse of finite width adopts an asymmetric multi-hump shape, …
The effective use of current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices is often limited by the noise which is caused by interaction with the environment and affects the fidelity of quantum gates. In transmon qubit systems, the quantum gate fidelity can be improved by applying control pulses that can minimize the effects of the environmental noise. In this work, we employ physics-guided quantum optimal control strategies to design optimal pulses driving quantum gates on superconducting qubit systems. We test our results by conducting experiments on the IBM Q hardware using their OpenPulse…
We theoretically study the transmission of a weak probe field under the influence of a strong pump field in a coupled nanomechanical resonator-superconducting microwave cavity system. Using the standard input-output theory, we find that both pulse delay (slow light effect) and advancement (fast light effect) of the probe field can appear in this coupled system provided that we choose the suitable detuning of the pump field from cavity resonance. The magnitude of the delay (advancement) can be tuned continuously by adjusting the power of the pump field. This technique demonstrates great potenti…
Freely falling point-like objects converge towards the center of the Earth. Hence the gravitational field of the Earth is inhomogeneous, and possesses a tidal component. The free fall of an extended quantum object such as a hydrogen atom prepared in a high principal-quantum-number stretch state, i.e., a circular Rydberg atom, is predicted to fall more slowly that a classical point-like object, when both objects are dropped from the same height from above the Earth. This indicates that, apart from "quantum jumps," the atom exhibits a kind of "quantum incompressibility" during free fall in inhom…
We present a numerically-optimized multipulse framework for the quantum control of a single-electron charge qubit. Our framework defines a set of pulse sequences, necessary for the manipulation of the ideal qubit basis, that avoids errors associated with excitations outside the computational subspace. A novel control scheme manipulates the qubit adiabatically, while also retaining high speed and ability to perform a general single-qubit rotation. This basis generates spatially localized logical qubit states, making readout straightforward. We consider experimentally realistic semiconductor qub…
Improving coherence times of quantum bits is a fundamental challenge in the field of quantum computing. With long-lived qubits it becomes, however, inefficient to wait until the qubits have relaxed to their ground state after completion of an experiment. Moreover, for error-correction schemes it is import to rapidly re-initialize ancilla parity-check qubits. We present a simple pulsed qubit reset protocol based on a two-pulse sequence. A first pulse transfers the excited state population to a higher excited qubit state and a second pulse into a lossy environment provided by a low-Q transmissio…
The adiabatic manipulation of quantum states is a powerful technique that has opened up new directions in quantum engineering, enabling tests of fundamental concepts such as the Berry phase and its nonabelian generalization, the observation of topological transitions, and holds the promise of alternative models of quantum computation. Here we benchmark the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage process for circuit quantum electrodynamics, by using the first three levels of a transmon qubit. We demonstrate a population transfer efficiency above 80% between the ground state and the second excited st…
Freely falling point-like objects converge toward the center of the Earth. Hence the gravitational field of the Earth is inhomogeneous, and possesses a tidal component. The free fall of an extended quantum mechanical object such as a hydrogen atom prepared in a high principal-quantum-number state, i.e. a circular Rydberg atom, is predicted to fall more slowly than a classical point-like object, when both objects are dropped from the same height above the Earth's surface. This indicates that, apart from transitions between quantum states, the atom exhibits a kind of quantum mechanical incompres…
We demonstrate a scalable readout scheme for an infrared single-photon pulse-position camera consisting of WSi superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs). For an N x N array, only 2 x N wires are required to obtain the position of a detection event. As a proof-of-principle, we show results from a 2 x 2 array.
The experimental optimization of a two-qubit controlled-Z (CZ) gate is realized following two different data-driven gradient ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE) protocols in the aim of optimizing the gate operator and the output quantum state, respectively. For both GRAPE protocols, the key computation of gradients utilizes mixed information of the input Z-control pulse and the experimental measurement. With an imperfect initial pulse in a flattop waveform, our experimental implementation shows that the CZ gate is quickly improved and the gate fidelities subject to the two optimized pulses are ar…
Reaching high speed, high fidelity qubit operations requires precise control over the shape of the underlying pulses. For weakly anharmonic systems, such as superconducting transmon qubits, short gates lead to leakage to states outside of the computational subspace. Control pulses designed with open-loop optimal control may reduce such leakage. However, model inaccuracies can severely limit the usability of such pulses. We implemented a closed-loop optimization that simultaneously adapts all control parameters based on measurements of a cost function built from Clifford gates. By parameterizin…
In this work, we develop a method to design control pulses for fixed-frequency superconducting qubits coupled via tunable couplers based on local control theory, an approach commonly employed to steer chemical reactions. Local control theory provides an algorithm for the monotonic population transfer from a selected initial state to a desired final state of a quantum system through the on-the-fly shaping of an external pulse. The method, which only requires a unique forward time-propagation of the system wavefunction, can serve as starting point for additional refinements that lead to new puls…
A particular superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)qubit, indicated as double SQUID qubit, can be manipulated by rapidly modifying its potential with the application of fast flux pulses. In this system we observe coherent oscillations exhibiting non-exponential decay, indicating a non trivial decoherence mechanism. Moreover, by tuning the qubit in different conditions (different oscillation frequencies) by changing the pulse height, we observe a crossover between two distinct decoherence regimes and the existence of an "optimal" point where the qubit is only weakly sensitive to in…
Although single and two-qubit gates are sufficient for universal quantum computation, single-shot three-qubit gates greatly simplify quantum error correction schemes and algorithms. We design fast, high-fidelity three-qubit entangling gates based on microwave pulses for transmon qubits coupled through a superconducting resonator. We show that when interqubit frequency differences are comparable to single-qubit anharmonicities, errors occur primarily through a single unwanted transition. This feature enables the design of fast three-qubit gates based on simple analytical pulse shapes that are e…
We study the propagation and amplification of a microwave field in a four-level cascade quantum system which is realized in a superconducting phase quantum circuit. It is shown that by increasing the microwave pump tones feeding the system, the normal dispersion switches to the anomalous and the gain-assisted superluminal microwave propagation is obtained in this system. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the stimulated microwave field is generated via four-wave mixing without any inversion population in the energy levels of the system (amplification without inversion) and the group velocity of…
We propose a scheme to couple short single photon pulses to superconducting qubits. An optical photon is first absorbed into an inhomogeneously broadened rare-earth doped crystal using controlled reversible inhomogeneous broadening. The optical excitation is then mapped into a spin state using a series of $π$-pulses and subsequently transferred to a superconducting qubit via a microwave cavity. To overcome the intrinsic and engineered inhomogeneous broadening of the optical and spin transitions in rare earth doped crystals, we make use of a special transfer protocol using staggered $π$-pulses.…
Systematic errors in spin rotation operations using simple RF pulses place severe limitations on the usefulness of the pulsed magnetic resonance methods in quantum computing applications. In particular, the fidelity of quantum logic operations performed on electron spin qubits falls well below the threshold for the application of quantum algorithms. Using three independent techniques, we demonstrate the use of composite pulses to improve this fidelity by several orders of magnitude. The observed high-fidelity operations are limited by pulse phase errors, but nevertheless fall within the limits…
An interaction-free measurement protocol is described for a quantum circuit consisting of a superconducting qubit and a read-out Josephson junction. By measuring the state of the qubit one can ascertain the presence of a current pulse through the circuit at a previous time without any energy exchange between the qubit and the pulse.
We propose a digital-analog quantum simulation of generalized Dicke models with superconducting circuits, including Fermi-Bose condensates, biased and pulsed Dicke models, for all regimes of light-matter coupling. We encode these classes of problems in a set of superconducting qubits coupled with a bosonic mode implemented by a transmission line resonator. Via digital-analog techniques, an efficient quantum simulation can be performed in state-of-the-art circuit quantum electrodynamics platforms, by suitable decomposition into analog qubit-bosonic blocks and collective single-qubit pulses thro…
The realization of cross-Kerr nonlinearity is an important task for many applications in quantum information processing. In this work, we propose a method for realizing cross-Kerr nonlinearity interaction between two superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators coupled by a three-level superconducting flux qutrit (coupler). By employing the qutrit-resonator dispersive interaction, we derive an effective Hamiltonian involving two-photon number operators and a coupler operator. This Hamiltonian can be used to describe a cross-Kerr nonlinearity interaction between two resonators when the coupler…
High-fidelity gate operations are essential to the realization of a fault-tolerant quantum computer. In addition, the physical resources required to implement gates must scale efficiently with system size. A longstanding goal of the superconducting qubit community is the tight integration of a superconducting quantum circuit with a proximal classical cryogenic control system. Here we implement coherent control of a superconducting transmon qubit using a Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) pulse driver cofabricated on the qubit chip. The pulse driver delivers trains of quantized flux pulses to the qubit …
High-fidelity control of superconducting qubits requires the generation of microwave-frequency pulses precisely tailored on nanosecond timescales. These pulses are most commonly synthesized by up-converting and superimposing two narrow-band intermediate-frequency signals referred to as the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) components. While the calibration of their DC-offsets, relative amplitude and phase allows one to cancel unwanted sideband and carrier leakage, this IQ mixing approach suffers from the presence of additional spurious frequency components. Here, we experimentally study an alter…
We demonstrate coherent control and measurement of a superconducting qubit coupled to a superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator with a dynamically tunable qubit-cavity coupling strength. Rabi oscillations are measured for several coupling strengths showing that the qubit transition can be turned off by a factor of more than 1500. We show how the qubit can still be accessed in the off state via fast flux pulses. We perform pulse delay measurements with synchronized fast flux pulses on the device and observe $T_1$ and $T_2$ times of 1.6 and 1.9 $μ$s, respectively. This work demonstrates how…
We derive the time-dependent photo-detection probability equation of a superconducting single photon detector (SSPD) to study the responsive property for a pulse train at high repetition rate. Using this equation, we analyze the characteristics of SSPDs when illuminated by bright pulses in blinding attack on a quantum key distribution (QKD). We obtain good agreement between expected values based on our equation and actual experimental values. Such a time-dependent probability analysis contributes to security analysis.
A critical ingredient for realizing large-scale quantum information processors will be the ability to make economical use of qubit control hardware. We demonstrate an extensible strategy for reusing control hardware on same-frequency transmon qubits in a circuit QED chip with surface-code-compatible connectivity. A vector switch matrix enables selective broadcasting of input pulses to multiple transmons with individual tailoring of pulse quadratures for each, as required to minimize the effects of leakage on weakly anharmonic qubits. Using randomized benchmarking, we compare multiple broadcast…
Utilizing optimal control to simulate a model Hamiltonian is an emerging strategy that leverages the intrinsic physics of a device with digital quantum simulation methods. Here we evaluate optimal control for probing the non-equilibrium properties of symmetry-protected topological (SPT) states simulated with superconducting hardware. Assuming a tunable transmon architecture, we cast evolution of these SPT states as a series of one- and two-site pulse optimization problems that are solved in the presence of leakage constraints. From the generated pulses, we numerical simulate time-dependent mel…
Quantum state manipulation with gates based on geometric phases acquired during cyclic operations promises inherent fault-tolerance and resilience to local fluctuations in the control parameters. Here we create a general non-Abelian and non-adiabatic holonomic gate acting in the $(\ket{0},\ket{2})$ subspace of a three-level transmon fabricated in a fully coplanar design. Experimentally, this is realized by simultaneously coupling the first two transitions by microwave pulses with amplitudes and phases defined such that the condition of parallel transport is fulfilled. We demonstrate the creati…
On-chip Frequency divider in superconducting quantum circuit
Tokyo University of Science（东京科学大学）；RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing (RQC)（理化学研究所量子计算中心）；National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University（国立阳明交通大学）；National Tsing Hua University（国立清华大学）；Beijing University of Technology（北京工业大学）；Hunan Normal University（湖南师范大学）
Superconducting qubits are a promising candidate for building a quantum computer. A continued challenge for fast yet accurate gates to minimize the effects of decoherence. Here we apply numerical methods to design fast entangling gates, specifically the controlled Z, in an architecture where two qubits are coupled via a resonator. We find that the gates can be sped up by a factor of two and reach any target fidelity. We also discuss how systematic errors arising from experimental conditions affect the pulses and how to remedy them, providing a strategy for the experimental implementation of ou…
Scaling of quantum computers to fault-tolerant levels relies critically on the integration of energy-efficient, stable, and reproducible qubit control and readout electronics. In comparison to traditional semiconductor control electronics (TSCE) located at room temperature, the signals generated by Josephson junction (JJ) based rf sources benefit from small device sizes, low power dissipation, intrinsic calibration, superior reproducibility, and insensitivity to ambient fluctuations. Previous experiments to co-locate qubits and JJ-based control electronics resulted in quasiparticle poisoning o…
We propose a scheme for generating entangled states for two superconducting quantum interference devices in a thermal cavity with the assistance of a microwave pulse.
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 present a way to realize a $n$-qubit controlled phase gate with superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) by coupling them to a superconducting resonator. In this proposal, the two logical states of a qubit are represented by the two lowest levels of a SQUID. An intermediate level of each SQUID is utilized to facilitate coherent control and manipulation of quantum states of the qubits. It is interesting to note that a $n$-qubit controlled phase gate can be achieved with $n$ SQUIDs by successively applying a $π/2$ Jaynes-Cummings pulse to each of the $n-1$ control SQUIDs before a…
