Strong tunable coupling between a superconducting charge and phase qubit

We have realized a tunable coupling over a large frequency range between an asymmetric Cooper pair transistor (charge qubit) and a dc SQUID (phase qubit). Our circuit enables the independent manipulation of the quantum states of each qubit as well as their entanglement. The measurement of the charge qubit's quantum states is performed by an adiabatic quantum transfer from the charge to the phase qubit. The measured coupling strength is in agreement with an analytic theory including a capacitive and a tunable Josephson coupling between the two qubits.     

Screening Effect in Charge Qubit

We study the influence of screening effect on quantum decoherence for charge qubit and the process of quantum information storage. When the flux produced by the circulating current in SQUID loop is considered, screening effect is formally characterized by a LC resonator. Using large-detuning condition and Fröhlich transformation in the qubit-cavity-resonator system, we calculate the decoherence factor for charge qubit and the effective qubit-cavity Hamiltonian. The decoherence factor owns a factorized structure, it shows that screening effect is a resource of decoherence for charge qubit. The effective Hamiltonian shows that the screening effect results in a frequency shift for charge qubit and a modified qubit-cavity coupling constant induced by a LC resonator.     

Charge Qubit Storage and Its Engineered Decoherence via Microwave Cavity

We study the entanglement of the superconducting charge qubit with the quantized electromagnetic field in a microwave cavity. It can be controlled dynamically by a classical external field threading the SQUID within the charge qubit. Utilizing the controllable quantum entanglement, we can demonstrate the dynamic process of the quantum storage of information carried by charge qubit. On the other hand, based on this engineered quantum entanglement, we can also demonstrate a progressive decoherence of charge qubit with quantum jump due to the coupling with the cavity field in quasi-classical state.     

Implementation of a Controlled-Phase Gate and Deutsch-Jozsa Algorithm with Superconducting Charge Qubits in a Cavity

Based on superconducting quantum interference devices （SQUIDs） coupled to a cavity, we propose a scheme for implementing a quantum controlled-phase gate （QPG） and Deutsch-Jozsa （D J） algorithm by a controllable interaction. In the present scheme, the SQUID works in the charge regime, and the cavity field is ultilized as quantum data-bus, which is sequentially coupled to only one qubit at a time. The interaction between the selected qubit and the data bus, such as resonant and dispersive interaction, can be realized by turning the gate capacitance of each SQUID. Especially, the bus is not excited and thus the cavity decay is suppressed during the implementation of DJ algorithm. For the QPG operation, the mode of the bus is unchanged in the end of the operation, although its mode is really excited during the operations. Finally, for typical experiment data, we analyze simply the experimental feasibility of the proposed scheme. Based on the simple operation, our scheme may be realized in this solid-state system, and our idea may be realized in other systems.     

One-shot quantum measurement using a hysteretic dc SQUID

We propose a single shot quantum measurement to determine the state of a Josephson charge quantum bit (qubit). The qubit is a Cooper pair box and the measuring device is a two junction superconducting quantum interference device (dc SQUID). This coupled system exhibits a close analogy with a Rydberg atom in a high Q cavity, except that in the present device we benefit from the additional feature of escape from the supercurrent state by macroscopic quantum tunneling, which provides the final readout. We test the feasibility of our idea against realistic experimental circuit parameters and by analyzing the phase fluctuations of the qubit.     

Controllable cross-Kerr interaction between microwave photons in circuit quantum electrodynamics

We propose a scheme to enable a controllable cross-Kerr interaction between microwave photons in a circuit quantum electrodynamics(QED) system.In this scheme we use two transmission-line resonators(TLRs) and one superconducting quantum interference device(SQUID) type charge qubit,which acts as an artificial atom.It is shown that in the dispersive regime of the circuit-QED system,a controllable cross-Kerr interaction can be obtained by properly preparing the initial state of the qubit,and a large cross-phase shift between two microwave fields in the two TLRs can then be reached.Based on this cross-Kerr interaction,we show how to create a macroscopic entangled state between the two TLRs.     

Modified SQUID Operator Equation for a Single-Qubit Structure Coupled to a Quantum Resonator

Role of self-inductance in superconducting quantum interference device （SQUID） charge qubit is considered. It is found that when an SQUID charge qubit is coupled to a quantum LC resonator, the SQUID voltage operator equation is modified in accompanying with the modification of operator Faraday equation describing the inductance. It is shown that when the extra energy is applied to the junction, the mean phase will be squeezed according to a damping factor.     

Quantum Entanglement of Two Flux Qubits Induced by an Auxiliary SQUID

We revisit a theoretical scheme to create quantum entanglement of two three-level superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) with the help of an auxiliary SQUID. In this scenario, two three-level systems are coupled to a quantized cavity field and a classical external field and thus form dark states. The quantum entanglement can be produced by a quantum measurement on the auxiliary SQUID. Our investigation emphasizes the quantum effect of the auxiliary SQUID. For the experimental feasibility and accessibility of the scheme, we calculate the time evolution of the whole system including the auxiliary SQUID. To ensure the efficiency of generating quantum entanglement, relations between the measurement time and dominate parameters of the system are analyzed according to detailed calculations.     

Pseudo-invariant Eigen-Operator for Deriving Energy-Level Gap for Quantum Bit in Quantum Circuit

Based on the method of pseudo invariant eigenoperator (PIEO), a fully quantum mechanical scheme is investigated for the coupling between a rf SQUID qubit and an off-resonance quantized single-mode electromagnetic field in the strong coupling regime. In order to derive the systematic energy-level gap obtained by the pseudo-invariant operator of the quantum system, we give operation props for corresponding quantum manipulation. In comparison with the solution of stationary Schrödinger equation, the PIEO method could be quite concise and effective to obtain energy-level gap for the given system.     

Quantum logic gates operation using SQUID qubits in bimodal cavity

We present a scheme to realize the basic two-qubit logic gates such as the quantum phase gate and SWAP gate using a detuned microwave cavity interacting with three-level superconducting-quantum-interference-device (SQUID) qubit(s), by placing SQUID(s) in a two-mode microwave cavity and using adiabatic passage methods. In this scheme, the two logical states of the qubit are represented by the two lowest levels of the SQUID, and the cavity fields are treated as quantized. Compared with the previous method, the complex procedures of adjusting the level spacing of the SQUID and applying the resonant microwave pulse to the SQUID to create transformation are not required. Based on superconducting device with relatively long decoherence time and simplified operation procedure, the gates operate at a high speed, which is important in view of decoherence.     

Fast qubit initialization in a superconducting circuit

We demonstrate an active reset protocol in a superconducting quantum circuit. The thermal population on the excited state of a transmon qubit is reduced through driving the transitions between the qubit and an ancillary qubit. Furthermore,we investigate the efficiency of this approach at different temperatures. The result shows that population in the first excited state can be dropped from 7% to 2.55% in 27 ns at 30 m K. The efficiency improves as the temperature increases. Compared to other schemes, our proposal alleviates the requirements for measurement procedure and equipment. With the increase of qubit integration, the fast reset technique holds the promise of improving the fidelity of quantum control.     

Three-qubit quantum-gate operation with an SQUID in a cavity

We propose a method of realizing a three-qubit quantum gate with a superconducting quantum interference device(SQUID) in a cavity.In this proposal,the gate operation involves the SQUID ground-states and the Fock states of cavity modes b and c.The two field-modes act as the controlling qubits,and the two SQUID states form the target qubit.Since only the metastable lower levels are involved in the gate operation,the gate is not affected by the SQUID decay rates.     

基于金刚石氮-空位色心自旋系综与超导量子电路混合系统的量子节点纠缠

量子纠缠是实现量子计算和量子通信的核心基础,本文提出了在金刚石氮-空位色心(NV centers)自旋系综与超导量子电路耦合的混合系统中实现两个分离量子节点之间纠缠的理论方案.在该混合系统中,把金刚石NV centers自旋系综和与之耦合的超导共面谐振器视为一个量子节点,两个量子节点之间通过一个空的超导共面谐振器连接.具有较长相干时间的NV centers自旋系综作为一个量子存储器,用于制备、存储和发送量子信息;易于外部操控的超导量子电路可执行量子逻辑门操作,快速调控量子信息.为了实现两个分离量子节点之间的纠缠,首先对系统的哈密顿量进行正则变换,将其等价为两个NV centers自旋系综与同一个超导共面谐振器之间的JC耦合;然后采用NV centers自旋-光子混合比特编码的方式,通过调节超导共面谐振器的谐振频率,精确控制体系演化时间,高保真度地实现了两个分离量子节点之间的量子纠缠.本方案还可以进一步扩展和集成,用于构建多节点纠缠的分布式量子网络.     

Measuring Loschmidt echo via Floquet engineering in superconducting circuits

The Loschmidt echo is a useful diagnostic for the perfection of quantum time-reversal process and the sensitivity of quantum evolution to small perturbations. The main challenge for measuring the Loschmidt echo is the time reversal of a quantum evolution. In this work, we demonstrate the measurement of the Loschmidt echo in a superconducting 10-qubit system using Floquet engineering and discuss the imperfection of an initial Bell-state recovery arising from the next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) coupling present in the qubit device. Our results show that the Loschmidt echo is very sensitive to small perturbations during quantum-state evolution, in contrast to the quantities like qubit population that is often considered in the time-reversal experiment. These properties may be employed for the investigation of multiqubit system concerning many-body decoherence and entanglement, etc., especially when devices with reduced or vanishing NNN coupling are used.     

Heisenberg-Type Quantum Steering by Continuous Weak Measurement in Circuit QED *

Quantum steering has attracted great interest in the last decade, especially in the celebrated optomechanical, cold atom, and quantum optical systems. However, there is still a lack of studies on quantum steering in circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED), which provides a useful experimental platform for revealing novel quantum phenomena. In this work, we investigate the steering of qubit by continuous weak measurement in a circuit QED system and establish a set of multiplicative steering inequalities based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Different from the widely studied systems mentioned above, multiplicative steering inequalities in the circuit QED system are in various forms. We find that only a portion of them can be used to show the detection dependence of the qubit state and we also analyze the reason. Furthermore, we discuss several conditions for the violation of a typical steering inequality, including the measurement strength and methods in detecting the cavity field as well as the quantum efficiency of the detector. This preliminary work could be helpful to quantum steering experiments in circuit QED systems.     

Decoherence dynamics of a charge qubit coupled to the noise bath

By virtue of the canonical quantization method, we present a quantization scheme for a charge qubit based on the superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), taking the self-inductance of the loop into account. Under reasonable short-time approximation, we study the effect of decoherence in the ohmic case by employing the response function and the norm. It is confirmed that the decoherence time, which depends on the parameters of the circuit components, the coupling strength, and the temperature, can be as low as several picoseconds, so there is enough time to record the information.     

非马尔科夫环境下耦合超导量子系统纠缠演化的数值研究

基于耦合超导量子比特系统模型下,在非马尔科夫环境中利用共生纠缠的方法分析了耦合系统纠缠的产生及其动力学的演化。研究了不同初始纠缠态下的纠缠猝死(ESD)和纠缠再生(ESB)现象;主要分析了系统耦合强度、库的截止频率与系统的振荡频率间的比值、温度和约瑟夫森能级差对纠缠演化的影响。结果表明:系统纠缠取决于初始纠缠态和系统的耦合强度J,并且通过调节以上非马尔科夫环境的相干参数可以延长解纠缠时间来确保量子计算过程中的应用和量子信息的实现。     

腔QED中超导量子干涉仪概率克隆机的物理实现

提出一个量子概率克隆机的物理实现方案,该方案首先将高Q腔中的两个超导量子干涉仪分别作为初始比特和目标比特,腔模作为测量比特,通过腔模和经典微波脉冲与超导量子干涉仪的多种相互作用实现量子概率克隆机的幺正演化;然后将腔模态映射到另一个超导量子干涉仪上,通过对该超导量子干涉仪磁通量的测量完成状态坍缩,从而以最优的成功概率实现量子态的精确克隆.本方案采用双光子拉曼共振过程加快单比特门的操作速率,并且总操作时间远小于自发辐射和腔模衰变时间,因而在实验上是可行的.     

新型超导量子比特及量子物理问题的研究

近年来,超导量子计算的研究有了很大的进展.本文首先介绍了nSQUID新型超导量子比特的制备和研究进展,包括器件的平面多层膜制备工艺和量子相干性的研究.这类器件在量子态的传输速度和二维势系统的基础物理问题研究方面有着很大的优越性.其次,国际上新近发展的平面形式的transmon和Xmon超导量子比特具有更长的量子相干时间,在器件的设计和耦合方面也有相当的灵活性.本文介绍了我们和浙江大学与中国科学技术大学等单位合作逐步完善的这种形式的Xmon器件的制备工艺、制备出的多种耦合量子比特芯片,以及参与合作,在国际上首次完成的多达10个超导量子比特的量子态纠缠、线性方程组量子算法的实现和多体局域态等固体物理问题的量子模拟.最后介绍了基于这些超导量子比特器件开展的大量的量子物理、非线性物理和量子光学方面的研究,包括在Autler-Townes劈裂、电磁诱导透明、受激拉曼绝热通道、循环跃迁和关联激光等方面形成的一整套系统和独特的研究成果.     

Strong Coupling Optomechanics Mediated by a Qubit in the Dispersive Regime

Cavity optomechanics represents a flexible platform for the implementation of quantum technologies, useful in particular for the realization of quantum interfaces, quantum sensors and quantum information processing. However, the dispersive, radiation–pressure interaction between the mechanical and the electromagnetic modes is typically very weak, harnessing up to now the demonstration of interesting nonlinear dynamics and quantum control at the single photon level. It has already been shown both theoretically and experimentally that if the interaction is mediated by a Josephson circuit, one can have an effective dynamics corresponding to a huge enhancement of the single-photon optomechanical coupling. Here we analyze in detail this phenomenon in the general case when the cavity mode and the mechanical mode interact via an off-resonant qubit. Using a Schrieffer–Wolff approximation treatment, we determine the regime where this tripartite hybrid system behaves as an effective cavity optomechanical system in the strong coupling regime.