Decoherence and 1/f noise in Josephson qubits

We propose and study a model of dephasing due to an environment of bistable fluctuators. We apply our analysis to the decoherence of Josephson qubits, induced by background charges present in the substrate, which are also responsible for the 1/f noise. The discrete nature of the environment leads to a number of new features which are mostly pronounced for slowly moving charges. Far away from the degeneracy this model for the dephasing is solved exactly.     

Decoherence in solid-state qubits

The interaction of solid-state qubits with environmental degrees of freedom strongly affects the qubit dynamics, and leads to decoherence. In quantum information processing with solid-state qubits, decoherence significantly limits the performances of such devices. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand the mechanisms that lead to decoherence. In this review, we discuss how decoherence affects two of the most successful realizations of solid-state qubits, namely, spin qubits and superconducting qubits. In the former, the qubit is encoded in the spin 1/2 of the electron, and it is implemented by confining the electron spin in a semiconductor quantum dot. Superconducting devices show quantum behaviour at low temperatures, and the qubit is encoded in the two lowest energy levels of a superconducting circuit. The electron spin in a quantum dot has two main decoherence channels, a (Markovian) phonon-assisted relaxation channel, due to the presence of a spin–orbit interaction, and a (non-Markovian) spin bath constituted by the spins of the nuclei in the quantum dot that interact with the electron spin via the hyperfine interaction. In a superconducting qubit, decoherence takes place as a result of fluctuations in the control parameters, such as bias currents, applied flux and bias voltages, and via losses in the dissipative circuit elements.     

Decoherence in josephson phase qubits from junction resonators

Although Josephson junction qubits show great promise for quantum computing, the origin of dominant decoherence mechanisms remains unknown. Improving the operation of a Josephson junction based phase qubit has revealed microscopic two-level systems or resonators within the tunnel barrier that cause decoherence. We report spectroscopic data that show a level splitting characteristic of coupling between a two-state qubit and a two-level system. Furthermore, we show Rabi oscillations whose "coherence amplitude" is significantly degraded by the presence of these spurious microwave resonators. The discovery of these resonators impacts the future of Josephson qubits as well as existing Josephson technologies.     

Engineering decoherence in Josephson persistent-current qubits

We discuss the relaxation and dephasing rates that result from the control and the measurement setup itself in experiments on Josephson persistent-current qubits. For control and measurement of the qubit state, the qubit is inductively coupled to electromagnetic circuitry. We show how this system can be mapped on the spin-boson model, and how the spectral density of the bosonic bath can be derived from the electromagnetic impedance that is coupled to the qubit. Part of the electromagnetic environment is a measurement apparatus (DC-SQUID), that is permanently coupled to the single quantum system that is studied. Since there is an obvious conflict between long coherence times and an efficient measurement scheme, the measurement process is analyzed in detail for different measurement schemes. We show, that the coupling of the measurement apparatus to the qubit can be controlled in situ. Parameters that can be realized in experiments today are used for a quantitative evaluation, and it is shown that the relaxation and dephasing rates that are induced by the measurement setup can be made low enough for a time-resolved study of the quantum dynamics of Josephson persistent-current qubits. Our results can be generalized as engineering rules for the read-out of related qubit systems. Received 4 September 2002 Published online 27 January 2003 RID="a" ID="a"Present address: Department of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA RID="b" ID="b"Present address: Sektion Physik and CeNS, Ludwig-Maximilians Universit?t, Theresienstr. 37, 80333 Munich, Germany e-mail: wilhelm@theorie.physik.uni-muenchen.de     

Decoherence of qubits: results beyond Markovian approximation

In this paper the master equation method is used to calculate the relaxation and decoherence times of a qubit. The results are beyond Markovian approximation, where the noise spectrum is assumed to be wide-band, so that they are valid for not only the wide- but also the narrow-band noises, which may be the main decoherence source in solid-state qubits. Moreover, for some special cases, analytical results can be achieved, which are consistent with those derived by others.     

Optimal multiqubit operations for Josephson charge qubits

We introduce a method for finding the required control parameters for a quantum computer that yields the desired quantum algorithm without invoking elementary gates. We concentrate on the Josephson charge-qubit model, but the scenario is readily extended to other physical realizations. Our strategy is to numerically find any desired double- or triple-qubit gate. The motivation is the need to significantly accelerate quantum algorithms in order to fight decoherence.     

Superconducting phase qubits with shadow-evaporated Josephson junctions

We develop a fabrication process for the superconducting phase qubits in which Josephson junctions for both the qubit and superconducting quantum interference device(SQUID) detector are prepared by shadow evaporation with a suspended bridge. Al junctions with areas as small as 0.05 μm~2 are fabricated for the qubit, in which the number of the decoherencecausing two-level systems(TLS) residing in the tunnel barrier and proportional to the junction area are greatly reduced. The measured energy spectrum shows no avoided crossing arising from coherent TLS in the experimentally reachable flux bias range of the phase qubit, which demonstrates the energy relaxation time T_1 and dephasing time T_φ on the order of 100 ns and 50 ns, respectively. We discuss several possible origins of decoherence from incoherent or weakly-coupled coherent TLS and further improvements of the qubit performance.     

Decoherence of quantum information of qubits by stochastic dephasing

Decoherence of purity, distinguishability and entanglement of qubit states is investigated under the influence of stochastic dephasing which obeys the Gauss–Markov process and the two-state jump Markov process. The quantum teleportation and quantum dense coding under the influence of stochastic dephasing are also discussed.     

Decoherence of interacting qubits in contact with a common environment

Decoherence of interacting two qubits placed under the influence of a common environment is studied by means of the quantum master equation, where the two qubits interact with each other via the XY-coupling and the two-qubit system has the dephasing coupling with the environment. It is shown that when the asymmetry of the interaction between the two-qubit system and environment is not small, the qubit-qubit interaction significantly affects the dephasing of the two-qubit system. To examine such an interaction effect, the decay of two-qubit entanglement is calculated. It is found that the qubit-qubit interaction makes not only the decay of entanglement small but also the period of the oscillatory behaviour short.     

Scalable quantum computing with Josephson charge qubits

A goal of quantum information technology is to control the quantum state of a system, including its preparation, manipulation, and measurement. However, scalability to many qubits and controlled con-nectivity between any selected qubits are two of the major stumbling blocks to achieve quantum com-puting (QC). Here we propose an experimental method, using Josephson charge qubits, to efficiently solve these two central problems. The proposed QC architecture is scalable since any two charge qubits can be effectively coupled by an experimentally accessible inductance. More importantly, we formulate an efficient and realizable QC scheme that requires only one (instead of two or more) two-bit operation to implement conditional gates.     

1/f Flux noise in Josephson phase qubits

We present a new method to measure 1/f noise in Josephson quantum bits (qubits) that yields low-frequency spectra below 1 Hz. A comparison of the noise taken at positive and negative bias of a phase qubit shows the dominant noise source to be flux noise and not junction critical-current noise, with a magnitude similar to that measured previously in other systems. Theoretical calculations show that the level of flux noise is not compatible with the standard model of noise from two-level state defects in the surface oxides of the films.     

Temperature dependence of coherent oscillations in Josephson phase qubits

We experimentally investigate the temperature dependence of Rabi oscillations and Ramsey fringes in superconducting phase qubits. In a wide range of temperatures, we find that both the decay time and the amplitude of these coherent oscillations remain nearly unaffected by thermal fluctuations. In the two-level limit, coherent qubit response rapidly vanishes as soon as the energy of thermal fluctuations k(B)T becomes larger than the energy level spacing variant Planck's over h omega of the qubit. In contrast, a sample of much shorter coherence times displayed semiclassical oscillations very similar to Rabi oscillation, but showing a qualitatively different temperature dependence. Our observations shed new light on the origin of decoherence in superconducting qubits. The experimental data suggest that, without degrading already achieved coherence times, phase qubits can be operated at temperatures much higher than those reported till now.     

Robust optimal quantum gates for Josephson charge qubits

Quantum optimal control theory allows us to design accurate quantum gates. We employ it to design high-fidelity two-bit gates for Josephson charge qubits in the presence of both leakage and noise. Our protocol considerably increases the fidelity of the gate and, more important, it is quite robust in the disruptive presence of 1/f noise. The improvement in the gate performances discussed in this work (errors approximately 10(-3)-10(-4) in realistic cases) allows us to cross the fault tolerance threshold.     

Dephasing of Josephson qubits close to optimal points

Decoherence of Josephson qubits can be substantially reduced by tuning their parameters to optimal operation points with only quadratic coupling to fluctuations. We analyze dephasing due to 1/f noise for a two-level system detuned from an optimal point, i.e., the crossover to the linear-coupling regime, both for free induction decay and for spin-echo experiments. Influence of several noise sources is also discussed. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Quantum two-level systems in Josephson junctions as naturally formed qubits

The two-level systems (TLSs) naturally occurring in Josephson junctions constitute a major obstacle for the operation of superconducting phase qubits. Since these TLSs can possess remarkably long decoherence times, we show that such TLSs can themselves be used as qubits, allowing for a well controlled initialization, universal sets of quantum gates, and readout. Thus, a single current-biased Josephson junction can be considered as a multiqubit register. It can be coupled to other junctions to allow the application of quantum gates to an arbitrary pair of qubits in the system. Our results indicate an alternative way to realize superconducting quantum information processing.     

Decoherence of flux qubits due to 1/f flux noise

We have investigated decoherence in Josephson-junction flux qubits. Based on the measurements of decoherence at various bias conditions, we discriminate contributions of different noise sources. We present a Gaussian decay function extracted from the echo signal as evidence of dephasing due to 1/f flux noise whose spectral density is evaluated to be about (10(-6)Phi0)2/Hz at 1 Hz. We also demonstrate that, at an optimal bias condition where the noise sources are well decoupled, the coherence observed in the echo measurement is limited mainly by energy relaxation of the qubit.     

Coupled Josephson qubits: Characterization of low-frequency charge noise

The realization of coupled qubit setups is a fundamental step towards implementation of universal quantum computing architectures. Solid state nano- devices, despite being very promising from the point of view of scalability and integration, strongly suffer from various noise sources. Particular detrimental role is played by low-frequency noise components. Here we identify stability conditions against low-frequency charge noise of two Josephson qubits in a fixed coupling scheme implementation. The effects of adiabatic noise in an i-SWAP protocol is discussed. Reduced sensitivity to charge flutuations with respect to the single qubit setup is predicted.     

Scalable quantum computing with Josephson charge-phase qubits inside a cavity

This Letter proposes a theoretical scheme for scalable quantum computing with charge-phase qubits inside a common cavity. Individually addressing the applied gate pulses, we obtain the switchable interqubit couplings mediated by the cavity mode, from which a universal set of logic gates can be constructed. In our scheme the interqubit couplings are completely feasible to perform conditional gates, and the classical microwaves cause negligible leakage errors.     

Models of environment and T1 relaxation in Josephson charge qubits

A theoretical interpretation of the recent experiments of Astafiev et al. on the T1-relaxation rate in Josephson charge qubits is proposed. The experimentally observed reproducible nonmonotonic dependence of T1 on the splitting E(J) of the qubit levels suggests further specification of the previously proposed models of the background charge noise. From our point of view the most promising is the "Andreev fluctuator" model of the noise. In this model the fluctuator is a Cooper pair that tunnels from a superconductor and occupies a pair of localized electronic states. Within this model one can naturally explain both the average linear T1(E(J)) dependence and the irregular fluctuations.     

External electric field control in the charge qubits including three Josephson junctions

Based on the standard canonical quantization principle, this paper gives the quantization scheme for the charge qubits mesoscopic circuit including three Josephson junctions coupled capacitively. By virtue of the Heisenberg equation, the time evolution of the phase difference operators across the polar plates and the number operators of the Cooper-pairs on the island are investigated and the modification of the Josephson equation is discussed. The time evolution of the phase difference operators is analysed when the Josephson junctions are irradiated by the external electrical field, which is referred to as also the obtainable controlling parameter.