Continuous monitoring of Rabi oscillations in a Josephson flux qubit

Under resonant irradiation, a quantum system can undergo coherent (Rabi) oscillations in time. We report evidence for such oscillations in a continuously observed three-Josephson-junction flux qubit, coupled to a high-quality tank circuit tuned to the Rabi frequency. In addition to simplicity, this method of Rabi spectroscopy enabled a long coherence time of about 2.5 micros, corresponding to an effective qubit quality factor approximately 7000.     

Spectroscopy and coherent manipulation of single and coupled flux qubits

Measurements of three-junction flux qubits, both single flux qubits and coupled flux qubits, using a coupled direct current superconducting quantum interference device （dc-SQUID） for readout are reported. The measurement procedure is described in detail. We performed spectroscopy measurements and coherent manipulations of the qubit states on a single flux qubit, demonstrating quantum energy levels and Rabi oscillations, with Rabi oscillation decay time TRabi =- 78 ns and energy relaxation time T~ = 315 ns. We found that the value of TRabi depends strongly on the mutual inductance between the qubit and the magnetic coil. We also performed spectroscopy measurements on inductively coupled flux qubits.     

Simply quantum information processing with RF superconducting qubit

Utilizing rf superconducting quantum interference devices coupled with transmission line resonator, we propose a scheme to implementing quantum information processing. In this system, the high fidelity two-qubit maximally entangled states and quantum logic gate are realized. Under the large detuning condition, the excited state of an rf superconducting quantum interference device is adiabatically eliminated. So the excited state spontaneous emission of the superconducting qubit can be effectively avoided in this paper. At last, the experimental feasibility and the challenge of our schemes have been discussed.     

Aharonov-Casher-effect suppression of macroscopic tunneling of magnetic flux

We suggest a system in which the amplitude of macroscopic flux tunneling can be modulated via the Aharonov-Casher effect. The system is an rf SQUID with the Josephson junction replaced by a Bloch transistor--two junctions separated by a small superconducting island on which the charge can be induced by an external gate voltage. When the Josephson coupling energies of the junctions are equal and the induced charge is q = e, destructive interference between tunneling paths brings the flux tunneling rate to zero. The device may also be useful as a qubit for quantum computation.     

Quantum State Transfer between Charge and Flux Qubits in Circuit-QED

We propose a scheme to implement quantum state transfer in a hybrid circuit quantum electrodynarnics （QED） system which consists of a superconducting charge qubit, a flux qubit, and a transmission line resonator （TLR）. It is shown that quantum state transfer between the charge qubit and the flux qubit can be realized by using the TLR as the data bus.     

Nondestructive readout for a superconducting flux qubit

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 backaction 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 micros.     

Simultaneous cooling of an artificial atom and its neighboring quantum system

We propose an approach for cooling both an artificial atom (e.g., a flux qubit) and its neighboring quantum system, the latter modeled by either a quantum two-level system or a quantum resonator. The flux qubit is cooled by manipulating its states, following an inverse process of state population inversion, and then the qubit is switched on to resonantly interact with the neighboring quantum system. By repeating these steps, the two subsystems can be simultaneously cooled. Our results show that this cooling is robust and effective, irrespective of the chosen quantum systems connected to the qubit.     

Electromagnetically induced tunnelling suppression in a flux qubit

Motivated by recent experiments wherein Josephson devices are irradiated by microwaves fields or are coupled to LC resonators, we theoretically investigate the dynamics of a flux qubit coupled to a monochromatic bosonic mode. We define strong coupling conditions under which the qubit tunnelling frequency between the localized flux states can be controlled and even suppressed. The practical realization of such a regime leading to this hindered dynamics is discussed.Received: 21 May 2003, Published online: 11 August 2003PACS: 03.67-a Quantum information - 03.67.Lx Quantum computing - 85.25.Dq Superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs)     

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.     

Efficient Scheme for One-Way Quantum Computing with Radiofrequency SQUID Qubits byAdiabatic Passage

We proposed an efficient scheme for constructing a quantum controlled phase-shift gate and generating the cluster states with rf superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) coupled to a microwave cavity through adiabatic evolution of dark eigenstates. During the operation, the spontaneous emission is suppressed since the rf SQUIDs are always in the three lowest flux states. Considering the influence from the cavity decay with achievable
experimental parameters, we numerically analyze the success probability and the fidelity for generating the two-SQUID maximally entangled state and the controlled phase-shift gate by adiabatic passage.     

Quantum nondemolition measurements of a flux qubit coupled to a noisy detector

We theoretically study the quantum nondemolition measurements of a flux qubit coupled to a noisy superconduct-ing quantum interference device (SQUID).The obtained analytical results indicate that the measurement probability is frequency-dependent in a short time scale and has a close relationship with the measurement-induced dephasing.Furthermore,when the detuning between the driven and bare resonator equals the coupling strength,we can obtain the maximum measurement rate that is determined by the character of the noise in the SQUID.Finally,we analysed the mixed effect caused by coupling between the non-diagonal term and the external variable.It is found that the initial information of the qubit is destroyed due to quantum tunneling between the qubit states.     

Simulation of dielectric resonator for high-Tc radio frequency superconducting quantum interference device

Nowadays, the high-critical-temperature radio frequency superconducting quantum interference device (high-$T_{\rm c }$ rf SQUID) is usually coupled to a dielectric resonator that is a standard $10\times 10\times 1$~mm³ SrTiO$₃ (STO) substrate with a YBa₂Cu$₃O$_{7 - \delta }$ (YBCO) thin-film flux focuser deposited on it. Recently, we have simulated a dielectric resonator for the high-$T_{\rm c }$ rf SQUID by using the ANSOFT High Frequency Structure Simulator (ANSOFT HFSS). We simulate the resonant frequency and the quality factor of our dielectric resonator when it is unloaded or matches a 50-$\Omega$ impedance. The simulation results are quite close to the practical measurements. Our study shows that ANSOFT HFSS is quite suitable for simulating the dielectric resonator used for the high-$T_c rf SQUID. Therefore, we think the ANSOFT HFSS can be very helpful for investigating the characteristics of dielectric resonators for high-$T_c rf SQUIDs.     

The initial decoherence of the mesoscopic Josephson junction flux qubit

For a mesoscopic radio frequency superconducting quantum interference device (rfSQUID), at a degeneracy point, the system reduces to a quantum two-state system which can be used as a flux qubit. When the noise environment is equivalent to a harmonic oscillators bath, by virtue of an operator-norm measure for the short time decoherence, this paper investigates the initial decoherence of the flux qubit operating in the ohmic noise environment and illustrates its property by means of the numerical evaluation.     

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.     

Nuclear ground states dressed with rf photons in Mössbauer–Zeeman 57Fe spectroscopy

We have applied the “dressed” state concept, developed in quantum electronics, to the situation in which spin 1/2 ground-state nuclear levels are coupled by rf photons. In particular, we have studied Mössbauer spectroscopy when there is Zeeman splitting of the nuclear levels and a further interaction due to an applied rf-radiation field when the rf frequency is in the neighborhood of the ground-state splitting. The dressed-state approach treats the coupling of the ground nuclear Zeeman levels, due to a radio frequency field, by considering the total system made up of: nucleus, static magnetic field, and rf field as one global quantum system. The energy levels and corresponding eigenstates of the system are calculated as a function of the rf frequency and the magnitude of the rf magnetic flux density. Mössbauer spectra are calculated for the ⁵⁷Fe case in which the source is subjected to both the static and radiation fields while the absorber nuclear levels are unsplit.

     

Determination of the composition and content of pulsed cluster beams from time-of-flight mass spectra of cluster fragments

The properties of a superconducting flux quantum bit (qubit) in the quasidispersive mode, where the frequency of a probe signal is lower than the qubit excitation frequency but is close to it, have been experimentally studied. It has been shown that all parameters of the qubit inductively coupled to a coplanar resonator can be determined at the single-frequency excitation from the analysis of the frequency responses of the transmission of the probe signal at the output of this resonator. Under the additional excitation of the qubit by the signal at the second harmonic of the cavity, resonance dips have been observed because of resonance between the probe signal and induced Rabi splitting. It has been shown that the positions of these dips are in good agreement with the parameters of the qubit that are obtained by analyzing the amplitude–frequency response within the width of the fundamental resonance frequency.     

Probing noise in flux qubits via macroscopic resonant tunneling

Macroscopic resonant tunneling between the two lowest lying states of a bistable rf SQUID is used to characterize noise in a flux qubit. Measurements of the incoherent decay rate as a function of flux bias revealed a Gaussian-shaped profile that is not peaked at the resonance point but is shifted to a bias at which the initial well is higher than the target well. The rms amplitude of the noise, which is proportional to the dephasing rate 1/tauphi, was observed to be weakly dependent on temperature below 70 mK. Analysis of these results indicates that the dominant source of low energy flux noise in this device is a quantum mechanical environment in thermal equilibrium.     

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.     

Ballistic Aharonov–Bohm quantum bits and quantum gates

We propose an architecture to perform quantum computation, using ballistic electrons as qubits and coupled quantum rings as quantum gates. In the proposed architecture two adjacent one-dimensional wires, creating a single qubit, are connected to two coupled quantum rings, where the required magnetic flux is provided by enclosed nano-sized magnets. The phase modulation of the wave function of the ballistic electrons under the Aharonov–Bohm effect is carefully designed to facilitate reprogrammable and dynamically controllable quantum gates. Arbitrary single-qubit quantum gates with high fidelity can be constructed on the basis of this architecture.     

Consistency of ground state and spectroscopic measurements on flux qubits

We compare the results of ground state and spectroscopic measurements carried out on superconducting flux qubits which are effective two-level quantum systems. For a single qubit and for two coupled qubits we show excellent agreement between the parameters of the pseudospin Hamiltonian found using both methods. We argue that by making use of the ground state measurements the Hamiltonian of N coupled flux qubits can be reconstructed as well at temperatures smaller than the energy level separation. Such a reconstruction of a many-qubit Hamiltonian can be useful for future quantum information processing devices.