Speeding up the Generation of Entangled State between a Superconducting Qubit and Cavity Photons via Counterdiabatic Driving

Optimal generation of entangled states is of critical significance for robust quantum information processing. An effective scheme is presented for speeding up the generation of an entangled state between a superconducting qubit and microwave photons via counterdiabatic driving. At a magic bias point, the first three levels of a charge-phase quantum circuit constitute an effective qutrit. An entangled state based on adiabatic population transfer is first achieved. By the technique of shortcuts to adiabaticity, a counterdiabatic driving is applied to the qutrit, which then accelerates the entanglement generation significantly. Moreover, with the accessible decoherence rates, the rapid operations in a shortcut way are highly robust when compared with adiabatic manipulations. The scheme could offer a promising approach toward optimal preparation of entangled states with superconducting artificial atoms in circuit quantum electrodynamics, experimentally.     

腔QED中利用超导量子干涉仪实现Toffoli门

基于腔量子电动力学技术,提出了利用三能级超导量子干涉仪实现Toffoli门的理论方案.利用超导量子干涉仪与腔场发生耦合,以及与外加经典脉冲发生共振跃迁来实现量子态的演化控制.该方案可以拓展到N比特Toffoli门的实现.最后,讨论了逻辑门的实验可行性,四比特Toffoli门的作用时间约为30 nm,它远小于腔衰减时间和较高能级的能量驰豫时间,从而足以实现量子态的操控.并且随着比特数的增多,Toffoli门作用时间的增幅较慢.     

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.     

Parametric control of a superconducting flux qubit

Parametric control of a superconducting flux qubit has been achieved by using two-frequency microwave pulses. We have observed Rabi oscillations stemming from parametric transitions between the qubit states when the sum of the two microwave frequencies or the difference between them matches the qubit Larmor frequency. We have also observed multiphoton Rabi oscillations corresponding to one- to four-photon resonances by applying single-frequency microwave pulses. The parametric control demonstrated in this work widens the frequency range of microwaves for controlling the qubit and offers a high quality testing ground for exploring nonlinear quantum phenomena of macroscopically distinct states.     

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.     

Demonstration of quantum zeno effect in a superconducting phase qubit

Quantum Zeno effect is a significant tool in quantum manipulating and computing. We propose its observation in superconducting phase qubit with two experimentally feasible measurement schemes. The conventional measurement method is used to achieve the proposed pulse and continuous readout of the qubit state, which are analyzed by projection assumption and Monte Carlo wavefunction simulation, respectively. Our scheme gives a direct implementation of quantum Zeno effect in a superconducting phase qubit.     

Entanglement generation through the interplay of harmonic driving and interaction in coupled superconducting qubits

We study the manipulation of quantum entanglement by periodic external fields. As an entanglement measure we compute numerically the concurrence of two coupled superconducting qubits both driven by a dc + ac external control parameter. We show that when the driving term of the Hamiltonian commutes with the qubit–qubit interaction term, it is possible to create or destroy entanglement in a controlled way by tuning the system at or near multiphoton resonances. On the other hand, when the driving does not commute with the qubit–qubit interaction, the control and generation of entanglement induced by the driving field is more robust and extended in parameter space, beyond the multiphoton resonances.     

Improved Superconducting Qubit State Readout by Path Interference

High fidelity single shot qubit state readout is essential for many quantum information processing protocols. In superconducting quantum circuit, the qubit state is usually determined by detecting the dispersive frequency shift of a microwave cavity from either transmission or reflection. We demonstrate the use of constructive interference between the transmitted and reflected signal to optimize the qubit state readout, with which we find a better resolved state discrimination and an improved qubit readout fidelity. As a simple and convenient approach, our scheme can be combined with other qubit readout methods based on the discrimination of cavity photon states to further improve the qubit state readout.     

Interaction-free measurements with superconducting qubits

An interaction-free measurement protocol is described for a quantum circuit consisting of a superconducting qubit and a readout 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.     

Quantum trajectories of superconducting qubits

In this review, we discuss recent experiments that investigate how the quantum sate of a superconducting qubit evolves during measurement. We provide a pedagogical overview of the measurement process, when the qubit is dispersively coupled to a microwave frequency cavity, and the qubit state is encoded in the phase of a microwave tone that probes the cavity. A continuous measurement record is used to reconstruct the individual quantum trajectories of the qubit state, and quantum state tomography is performed to verify that the state has been tracked accurately. Furthermore, we discuss ensembles of trajectories, time-symmetric evolution, two-qubit trajectories, and potential applications in measurement-based quantum error correction.     

Nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation with optimal control on superconducting circuits

Quantum gates, which are the essential building blocks of quantum computers, are very fragile. Thus, to realize robust quantum gates with high fidelity is the ultimate goal of quantum manipulation. Here, we propose a nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation scheme on superconducting circuits to engineer arbitrary quantum gates, which share both the robust merit of geometric phases and the capacity to combine with optimal control technique to further enhance the gate robustness. Specifically, in our proposal, arbitrary geometric single-qubit gates can be realized on a transmon qubit, by a resonant microwave field driving, with both the amplitude and phase of the driving being timedependent. Meanwhile, nontrivial two-qubit geometric gates can be implemented by two capacitively coupled transmon qubits, with one of the transmon qubits’ frequency being modulated to obtain effective resonant coupling between them. Therefore, our scheme provides a promising step towards fault-tolerant solid-state quantum computation.     

Observation of quantum jumps in a superconducting artificial atom

We continuously measure the state of a superconducting quantum bit coupled to a microwave readout cavity by using a fast, ultralow-noise parametric amplifier. This arrangement allows us to observe quantum jumps between the qubit states in real time, and should enable quantum error correction and feedback--essential components of quantum information processing.     

High-contrast dispersive readout of a superconducting flux qubit using a nonlinear resonator

We demonstrate high-contrast state detection of a superconducting flux qubit. Detection is realized by probing the microwave transmission of a nonlinear resonator, based on a SQUID. Depending on the driving strength of the resonator, the detector can be operated in the monostable or the bistable mode. The bistable operation combines high-sensitivity with intrinsic latching. The measured contrast of Rabi oscillations is as high as 87%; of the missing 13%, only 3% of the loss of contrast is unaccounted for. Experiments involving two consecutive detection pulses are consistent with preparation of the qubit state by the first measurement.     

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.     

Implementing multi-qubit entanglement of two-level systems inside a superconducting phase qubit

The interaction between a superconducting phase qubit and the two-level systems located inside the Josephson tunnel barrier is described by the XY model, which is naturally used to implement the i-SWAP gate. With this gate, we propose a scheme to efficiently generate multi-qubit entangled states of such two-level systems, including multipartite W state and cluster states. In particular, it is found that, with the help of the phase qubit, the entanglement witness can be used to efficiently detect the produced multi-qubit entangled states.     

Topological quantum memory interfacing atomic and superconducting qubits

We propose a scheme to manipulate a topological spin qubit which is realized with cold atoms in a one-dimensional optical lattice. In particular, by introducing a quantum opto-electro-mechanical interface, we are able to first transfer a superconducting qubit state to an atomic qubit state and then to store it into the topological spin qubit. In this way, an efficient topological quantum memory could be constructed for the superconducting qubit. Therefore, we can consolidate the advantages of both the noise resistance of the topological qubits and the scalability of the superconducting qubits in this hybrid architecture.     

Purity and Correlation of a Cavity Field Interacting with a SC Charge Qubit with a Lossy Cavity

A single-mode microwave cavity field, coupled to its reservoir, interacting generally with a superconducting charge qubit is considered. Using a certain canonical transformation for the qubit states, the system is transformed into the usual Jaynes-Cummings model. The solution of the master equation of this system, in the case of a high-Q cavity is obtained. The temporal evolution of the population inversion is explored. The effects of cavity damping on the purity of the qubit, the field and the global system state are studied. It is found that due to the coupling between the system and environment, the purity is lost. The entanglement is compared with total correlation. It is found that, with the damping parameter, the asymptotic value of the correlation measure is not null, since the global system evolves to a classically correlated state. The negativity is used as an indicator of the degree of entanglement between the qubit and the field. The results indicate the sensitivity of these aspects to change of the damping parameter.     

Preparation of multi-photon Fock states and quantum entanglement properties in circuit QED

We demonstrate the controllable generation of multi-photon Fock states in circuit quantum electrodynamics （circuit QED）. The external bias flux regulated by a counter can effectively adjust the bias time on each superconducting flux qubit so that each flux qubit can pass in turn through the circuit cavity and thereby avoid the effect of decoherence. We further investigate the quantum correlation dynamics of coupling superconducting qubits in a Fock state. The results reveal that the lower the photon number of the light field in the number state, the stronger the interaction between qubits is, then the more beneficial to maintaining entanglement between qubits it will be.     

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.     

Decoherence in Josephson qubits from dielectric loss

Dielectric loss from two-level states is shown to be a dominant decoherence source in superconducting quantum bits. Depending on the qubit design, dielectric loss from insulating materials or the tunnel junction can lead to short coherence times. We show that a variety of microwave and qubit measurements are well modeled by loss from resonant absorption of two-level defects. Our results demonstrate that this loss can be significantly reduced by using better dielectrics and fabricating junctions of small area . With a redesigned phase qubit employing low-loss dielectrics, the energy relaxation rate has been improved by a factor of 20, opening up the possibility of multiqubit gates and algorithms.