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.     

Entangled State in Quantization of Magnetic Flux Qubits with Mutual Inductance Coupling

Via the Hamilton dynamical approach we have constructed Hamiltonian for the mutual inductance coupling magnetic flux qubits. The entangled state representation is used to propose Cooper-pair number-phase quantization and the Hamiltonian operator for the whole system. The dynamical evolution of the phase difference operator and the Cooper-pairs number operator is investigated by virtue of Heisenberg equations. Project 10574060 supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and project X071045 supported by the Science Foundation of Liaocheng University.     

Progress in superconducting qubits from the perspective of coherence and readout

Superconducting qubits are Josephson junction-based circuits that exhibit macroscopic quantum behavior and can be manipulated as artificial atoms.Benefiting from the well-developed technology of microfabrication and microwave engineering,superconducting qubits have great advantages in design flexibility,controllability,and scalability.Over the past decade,there has been rapid progress in the field,which greatly improved our understanding of qubit decoherence and circuit optimization.The single-qubit coherence time has been steadily raised to the order of 10 to 100μs,allowing for the demonstration of high-fidelity gate operations and measurement-based feedback control.Here we review recent progress in the coherence and readout of superconducting qubits.     

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.     

Quantum entanglement and control in a capacitively coupled charge qubit circuit

The macroscopic quantum entanglement in capacitively coupled SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device)-based charge qubits is investigated theoretically. The entanglement characteristic is discussed by employing the quantum Rabi oscillations and the concurrence. An interesting conclusion is obtained, i.e., the magnetic fluxes Ф_x1 and Ф_x2 through the superconducting loops can adjust the entanglement degree between the qubits.     

Design of a gap tunable flux qubit with FastHenry

In the preparations of superconducting qubits, circuit design is a vital process because the parameters and layout of the circuit not only determine the way we address the qubits, but also strongly affect the qubit coherence properties. One of the most important circuit parameters, which needs to be carefully designed, is the mutual inductance among different parts of a superconducting circuit. In this paper we demonstrate how to design a gap-tunable flux qubit by layout design and inductance extraction using a fast field solver Fast Henry. The energy spectrum of the gap-tunable flux qubit shows that the measured parameters are close to the design values.     

Controlled decoherence of floating flux qubits

In Born-Markov approximation,this paper calculates the energy relaxation time T 1 and the decoherence time T 2 of a floating flux qubit by solving the set of Bloch-Redfield equations.It shows that there are two main factors influencing the floating flux qubits:coupling capacitor in the circuit and the environment resistor.It also discusses how to improve the quantum coherence time of a qubit.Through shunt connecting/series connecting inductive elements,an inductive environment resistor is obtained and further the reactance component of the environment resistor is improved,which is beneficial to the enhancement of decoherence time of floating flux qubits.     

基于超导量子干涉仪与介观LC共振器耦合电路的量子通信

量子计算如何在实验上实现一直受到广泛关注. 包括超导Josephson结的小量子器件(如超导量子干涉仪, SQUID)是实现量子计算的一种非常具有发展前景的物理系统. 本文通过对SQUID和介观LC共振器耦合电路系统的Cooper对数-相量子化机制的讨论, 合理地调制参数, 由此导出了该耦合电路在两能级近似下的J-C模型形式, 并提出了一种基于此模型的可实现量子信息传递的方案. 根据此方案可以利用介观LC共振器为数据总线来执行两SQUID间电荷量子比特的传递.     

超导量子比特的耦合研究进展

超导量子比特以其在可控性、低损耗以及可扩展性等方面的优势被认为是最有希望实现量子计算机的固态方式之一.量子比特之间的相干可控耦合是实现大规模的量子计算的必要条件.本文介绍了超导量子比特耦合方式的研究进展,包括利用电容或电感实现量子比特的局域耦合,着重介绍一维传输线谐振腔作为量子总线实现多个量子比特的可控耦合的电路量子电动力学体系,并对最新的三维腔与超导量子比特的耦合结构的研究进展进行了论述.对各种耦合体系的哈密顿量进行了比较详细的分析,并按照局域性和可控性对不同耦合机制进行了分类.     

Concurrence evolution of two qubits coupled with one-mode cavity separately

The concurrence evolution of two qubits coupled with one-mode cavity separately is investigated exactly without adopting the rotating-wave approximation. The results show that for the resonant case, the concurrence evolution behaviour of the system is similar to that of the Markovian case when the coupling strength is weak, while the concurrence vanishes in a finite time and might revive fractional initial entanglement before it permanently vanishes when the coupling strength is strong. And for the detuning case, the entanglement could periodically recover after complete disentanglement. These results are quite different from those of system subjected to Jaynes--Cummings model.     

Short-Time Decoherence of Solid-State Qubit at Optimal Operation Points

We investigate the short-time decoherence of a solid-state qubit under Ohmic noise at optimal operation points. The decoherence is analyzed by maximum norm of the deviation density operator. It is shown that at the temperature T = 3 mK, the loss of the fidelity due to decoherence is much smaller than the DiVincenzo low decoherence criterion, which means that the mode/may be an optimal candidate of qubit for quantum computation.     

Short-Time Decoherence of Solid-State Qubit at Optimal Operation Points

We investigate the short-time decoherence of a solid-state qubit under Ohmic noise at optimal operation points. The decoherence is analyzed by maximum norm of the deviation density operator. It is shown that at the temperature T = 3 mK, the loss of the fidelity due to decoherence is much smaller than the DiVincenzo low decoherence criterion, which means that the model may be an optimal candidate of qubit for quantum computation.     

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.     

噪声对超导量子比特测量系统的影响

详细介绍了噪声对超导量子比特测量系统的影响。测量系统通过对时间的测量来获得单个约瑟夫森结跳变电流统计分布P(I)。在测量电路中采取了一系列的降噪措施,使得实验所能测到的约瑟夫森结的最低等效温度进一步的降低。     

Transferring quantum entangled states between multiple single-photon-state qubits and coherent-state qubits in circuit QED

We present a way to transfer maximally- or partially-entangled states of n single-photon-state (SPS) qubits onto ncoherent-state (CS) qubits, by employing 2nmicrowave cavities coupled to a superconducting flux qutrit. The two logic states of a SPS qubit here are represented by the vacuum state and the single-photon state of a cavity, while the two logic states of a CS qubit are encoded with two coherent states of a cavity. Because of using only one superconducting qutrit as the coupler, the circuit architecture is significantly simplified. The operation time for the state transfer does not increase with the increasing of the number of qubits. When the dissipation of the system is negligible, the quantum state can be transferred in a deterministic way since no measurement is required. Furthermore, the higher-energy intermediate level of the coupler qutrit is not excited during the entire operation and thus decoherence from the qutrit is greatly suppressed. As a specific example, we numerically demonstrate that the high-fidelity transfer of a Bell state of two SPS qubits onto two CS qubits is achievable within the present-day circuit QED technology. Finally, it is worthy to note that when the dissipation is negligible, entangled states of n CS qubits can be transferred back onto n SPS qubits by performing reverse operations. This proposal is quite general and can be extended to accomplish the same task, by employing a natural or artificial atom to couple 2nmicrowave or optical cavities.     

Fabrication of Al/AlOx/Al Josephson junctions and superconducting quantum circuits by shadow evaporation and a dynamic oxidation process

Besides serving as promising candidates for realizing quantum computing,superconducting quantum circuits are one of a few macroscopic physical systems in which fundamental quantum phenomena can be directly demonstrated and tested,giving rise to a vast field of intensive research work both theoretically and experimentally.In this paper we report our work on the fabrication of superconducting quantum circuits,starting from its building blocks:Al/AlOx /Al Josephson junctions.By using electron beam lithography patterning and shadow evaporation,we have fabricated aluminum Josephson junctions with a controllable critical current density(jc) and wide range of junction sizes from 0.01 μm2 up to 1 μm2.We have carried out systematical studies on the oxidation process in fabricating Al/AlOx/Al Josephson junctions suitable for superconducting flux qubits.Furthermore,we have also fabricated superconducting quantum circuits such as superconducting flux qubits and charge-flux qubits.     

Evidence for entangled states of two coupled flux qubits

We have studied the low-frequency magnetic susceptibility of two inductively coupled flux qubits using the impedance measurement technique (IMT), through their influence on the resonant properties of a weakly coupled high-quality tank circuit. In a single qubit, an IMT dip in the tank's current-voltage phase angle at the level anticrossing yields the amplitude of coherent flux tunneling. For two qubits, the difference (IMT deficit) between the sum of single-qubit dips and the dip amplitude when both qubits are at degeneracy shows that the system is in a mixture of entangled states (a necessary condition for entanglement). The dependence on temperature and relative bias between the qubits allows one to determine all the parameters of the effective Hamiltonian and equilibrium density matrix, and confirms the formation of entangled eigenstates.     

Bridge-free fabrication process for Al/AlO_x/Al Josephson junctions

We fabricate different-sized Al/AlO_x/Al Josephson junctions by using a simple bridge-free technique, in which only single-layer E-beam resist polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA) is exposed at low accelerate voltage(below 30 kV) and the size of junction can be varied in a large range. Compared with the bridge technique, this fabrication process is very robust because it can avoid collapsing the bridge during fabrication. This makes the bridge-free technique more popular to meet different requirements for Josephson junction devices especially for superconducting quantum bits.     

Fabrication of Al/AlO_x/Al junctions using pre-exposure technique at 30-keV e-beam voltage

We fabricate high-quality A1/A1O_x/A1 junctions using improved bridge and bridge-free techniques at 30-keV e-beam voltage,in which the length of undercut and the size of junction can be well controlled by the pre-exposure technique.The dose window is 5 times as large as that used in the usual Dolan bridge technique,making this technique much more robust.Similar results,comparable with those achieved using a 100-keV e-beam writer,are obtained,which indicate that the 30-keV e-beam writer could be an economic choice for the superconducting qubit fabrication.     

Magnetic avalanches: Josephson, Bean, and Bak

Josephson junction arrays provide an ideal physical realization for studying the complex dynamics of the sort found in sandpile models. They provide a means of separately investigating the dual physical effects of nonlinearity and disorder, and hold promise as an example for establishing a rigorous connection between the governing differential equations and the corresponding cellular automaton.