InSitu Characterization of Qubit Control Lines: A Qubit as a Vector Network Analyzer.

Abstract

We propose and experimentally realize a technique to measure the transfer function of a control line in the frequency domain using a qubit as a vector network analyzer. Our method requires coupling the line under test to the longitudinal component of the Hamiltonian of the qubit and the ability to induce Rabi oscillations through simultaneous driving of the transverse component. The method can be used to increase the fidelity of entangling gates in a quantum processor. We have demonstrated that by characterizing the "flux" control line of a superconducting transmon qubit in the range from 1 to 450MHz and using this characterization to improve the fidelity of an entangling cphase gate between two transmon qubits.