Macroscopic entangled states in superconducting flux qubits

Abstract

We theoretically study the macroscopic quantum entanglement in superconducting flux qubits. A phase-coupling scheme is proposed to offer enough strength of interactions between qubits. It is shown that due to the two-qubit tunneling processes both the ground state and excited states of coupled two flux qubits can be Bell type states, maximally entangled, in experimentally accessible regimes. The parameter regimes for the Bell states are discussed in terms of external magnetic flux and Josephson coupling energies. We also investigate two types of genuine three-qubit entanglement, known as the Greenberger-Horne- Zeilinger(GHZ) and W states. While an excited state can be the W state, the GHZ state is formed at the ground state of the coupled three flux qubits. The GHZ and W states are shown to be robust against external flux fluctuations for feasible experimental realizations.