Superconducting Transmon Qubits Research Articles

Mechanically induced correlated errors on superconducting qubits with relaxation times exceeding 0.4 ms

Superconducting qubits are among the most advanced candidates for achieving fault-tolerant quantum computing. Despite recent significant advancements in the qubit lifetimes, the origin of the loss mechanism for state-of-the-art qubits is still subject to investigation. Furthermore, the successful implementation of quantum error correction requires negligible correlated errors between qubits. Here, we realize long-lived superconducting transmon qubits that exhibit fluctuating lifetimes, averaging 0.2 ms and exceeding 0.4 ms – corresponding to quality factors above 5 million and 10 million, respectively. We then investigate their dominant error mechanism. By introducing novel time-resolved error measurements that are synchronized with the operation of the pulse tube cooler in a dilution refrigerator, we find that mechanical vibrations from the pulse tube induce nonequilibrium dynamics in highly coherent qubits, leading to their correlated bit-flip errors. Our findings not only deepen our understanding of the qubit error mechanisms but also provide valuable insights into potential error-mitigation strategies for achieving fault tolerance by decoupling superconducting qubits from their mechanical environments.

Quantum Measurement Classification Using Statistical Learning

Interpreting the results of a quantum computer can pose a significant challenge due to inherent noise in these mesoscopic quantum systems. Quantum measurement, a critical component of quantum computing, involves determining the probabilities linked with quantum states post-multiple circuit computations based on quantum readout values provided by hardware. While there are promising classification-based solutions, they can either misclassify or necessitate excessive measurements, thereby proving to be costly. This article puts forth an efficient method to discern the quantum state by analyzing the probability distributions of data post-measurement. Specifically, we employ cumulative distribution functions to juxtapose the measured distribution of a sample against the distributions of basis states. The efficacy of our approach is demonstrated through experimental results on a superconducting transmon qubit architecture, which shows a substantial decrease (88%) in single qubit readout error compared to state-of-the-art measurement techniques. Moreover, we report additional error reduction (12%) compared to state-of-the-art measurement techniques when our technique is applied to enhance existing multi-qubit classification techniques. We also demonstrate the applicability of our proposed method for higher dimensional quantum systems, including classification of single qutrits as well as multiple qutrits.

Wiring surface loss of a superconducting transmon qubit

Quantum processors using superconducting qubits suffer from dielectric loss leading to noise and dissipation. Qubits are usually designed as large capacitor pads connected to a non-linear Josephson junction (or SQUID) by a superconducting thin metal wiring. Here, we report on finite-element simulation and experimental results confirming that more than 50% of surface loss in transmon qubits can originate from Josephson junctions wiring and can limit qubit relaxation time. We experimentally extracted dielectric loss tangents of qubit elements and showed that dominant surface loss of wiring can occur for real qubits designs. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate up to 20% improvement in qubit quality factor by wiring design optimization.

Characterization of a Transmon Qubit in a 3D Cavity for Quantum Machine Learning and Photon Counting

In this paper, we report the use of a superconducting transmon qubit in a 3D cavity for quantum machine learning and photon counting applications. We first describe the realization and characterization of a transmon qubit coupled to a 3D resonator, providing a detailed description of the simulation framework and of the experimental measurement of important parameters, such as the dispersive shift and the qubit anharmonicity. We then report on a Quantum Machine Learning application implemented on a single-qubit device to fit the u-quark parton distribution function of the proton. In the final section of the manuscript, we present a new microwave photon detection scheme based on two qubits coupled to the same 3D resonator. This could in principle decrease the dark count rate, favoring applications like axion dark matter searches.

Hamiltonian Switching Control of Noisy Bipartite Qubit Systems

Abstract We develop a Hamiltonian switching ansatz for bipartite control that is inspired by the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), to mitigate environmental noise on qubits. We demonstrate the control for a central spin coupled to bath spins via isotropic Heisenberg interactions, and then make physical applications to the protection of quantum gates performed on superconducting transmon qubits coupling to environmental two-level-systems (TLSs) through dipole-dipole interactions, as well as on such qubits coupled to both TLSs and a Lindblad bath. The control field is classical and acts only on the system qubits. We use reinforcement learning with policy gradient (PG) to optimize the Hamiltonian switching control protocols, using a fidelity objective for specific target quantum gates. 
 We use this approach to demonstrate effective suppression of both coherent and dissipative noise, with numerical studies achieving target gate implementations with fidelities over 0.9999 (four nines) in the majority of our test cases and showing improvement beyond this to values of 0.999999999 (nine nines) upon a subsequent optimization by Gradient Ascent Pulse Engineering (GRAPE). We analyze how the control depth, total evolution time, number of environmental TLS, and choice of optimization method affect the fidelity achieved by the optimal protocols and reveal some critical behaviors of bipartite control of quantum gates.

Engineering multimode interactions in circuit quantum acoustodynamics.

In recent years, important progress has been made towards encoding and processing quantum information in the large Hilbert space of bosonic modes. Mechanical resonators have several practical advantages for this purpose, because they confine many high-quality-factor modes into a small volume and can be easily integrated with different quantum systems. However, it is challenging to create direct interactions between different mechanical modes that can be used to emulate quantum gates. Here we demonstrate an in situ tunable beamsplitter-type interaction between several mechanical modes of a high-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonator. The engineered interaction is mediated by a parametrically driven superconducting transmon qubit, and we show that it can be tailored to couple pairs or triplets of phononic modes. Furthermore, we use this interaction to demonstrate the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect between phonons. Our results lay the foundations for using phononic systems as quantum memories and platforms for quantum simulations.

Shortcut-based generation of transmon-magnon entangled states

Optimized generation of entangled states between solid-state qubits is of fundamental significance to quantum information science and technology. Here, we develop an effective scheme to fast and robustly create the entangled states in a hybrid system containing a superconducting transmon qubit and a spin magnon of yttrium iron garnet. The transmon qubit and the magnon system are coupled via a microwave cavity field. Within the framework of invariant-based shortcuts to adiabaticity, the transmon-magnon entangled states can be rapidly induced by engineering the Rabi couplings between the cavity mode and transmon (magnon) with constant amplitudes. Compared with a non-shortcut counterpart, the shortcut-based operations of interest not only considerably shorten the generation time, but also greatly mitigate the decoherence effects. Furthermore, the fast dynamics is well insensitive to the control deviation of Rabi couplings. Thus our approach could lead to advances in information processing and state engineering with composite systems.

Heralded and robust W-state generation for distant superconducting qubits with practical microwave pulse scattering

Nonlocal multipartite entanglement holds significant potential for both fundamental physics and practical applications. We present a robust protocol for generating remote entanglement, specifically W states, among multiple nonlocal superconducting qubits. Our protocol employs practical microwave pulse scattering through a microwave cavity, which is coupled to a far-detuned superconducting transmon qubit, facilitating a CNOT-like operation. Our approach can be implemented without the need for single microwave-photon sources and its completion is heralded by microwave photon measurements. Furthermore, our protocol can generate faithful nonlocal W states of distant superconducting qubits with practical detector units, each cascading two quantum non-demolition detectors, rather than ideal single-photon detectors. These distinct features make our protocol particularly useful for large quantum secure communication networks.

Remote entangling gate between a quantum dot spin and a transmon qubit mediated by microwave photons

Spin qubits and superconducting qubits are promising candidates for realizing solid-state quantum information processors. Designing a hybrid architecture that combines the advantages of different qubits on the same chip is a highly desirable but challenging goal. Here we propose a hybrid architecture that utilizes a high-impedance SQUID array resonator as a quantum bus, thereby coherently coupling different solid-state qubits. We employ a resonant exchange spin qubit hosted in a triple quantum dot and a superconducting transmon qubit. Since this hybrid system is highly tunable, it can operate in a dispersive regime, where the interaction between the different qubits is mediated by virtual photons. By utilizing such interactions, entangling gate operations between different qubits can be realized in a short time of 30 ns with a fidelity of up to 96.5% under realistic parameter conditions. Further utilizing this interaction, remote entangled state between different qubits can be prepared and is robust to perturbations of various parameters. These results pave the way for exploring efficient fault-tolerant quantum computation on hybrid quantum architecture platforms.

Compact superconducting transmon qubit circuits made of ultrathin NbN

We design and fabricate a compact superconducting qubit circuit made of nano-thick NbN film on a high-resistivity silicon substrate, carrying seven transmon qubits. By comparing with the conventional superconducting qubit circuits made of superconducting films with hundred-nanometer thickness, our superconducting qubit circuit has much smaller size in the readout circuit, whose resonator length is only about 1/20 of that in a conventional superconducting circuit. Transmons are measured and characterized in the frequency and time domains with different flux bias. The transition frequency f01 can be adjusted in the range of several GHz. The qubit circuits made of such nano-thick material with high kinetic inductance are promising in the integration of quantum circuits.

Approximate quantum gates compilation for superconducting transmon qubits with self-navigation algorithm

Approximate quantum gates compilation for superconducting transmon qubits with self-navigation algorithm

Shape optimization of superconducting transmon qubits for low surface dielectric loss

Surface dielectric loss from superconducting transmon qubits is believed to be one of the dominant sources of decoherence. Reducing surface dielectric loss is crucial for achieving a high quality factor and a long relaxation time (T 1), which can be engineered by carefully changing the geometry of a transmon. In this paper, we present a shape-optimization approach to reduce surface dielectric loss in a transmon qubit. The capacitor pads and junction wires of transmons are shaped as spline curves and optimized through the finite-element method and a global optimization algorithm. We find that the participation ratio of capacitor pads and junction wires can be reduced by % and % compared to previous designs, while the overall footprint and anharmonicity are maintained at acceptable values. As a result, the two-level system-limited quality factor and the corresponding T 1 were increased by 21.6%.

Design of Scalable Superconducting Quantum Circuits Using Flip-Chip Assembly

We present design results of scalable superconducting quantum circuits using the flip-chip assembly. In order to achieve the longest relaxation time ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T_{1}$</tex-math></inline-formula> ) of a qubit possible, gap between two chips in flip-chip assembly is determined to be 12 μm where low surface dielectric loss from two-level system (TLS) defects can be achieved while maintaining large readout coupling strength between two chips in the flip-chip assembly. Superconducting transmon qubit design is then optimized to have a target anharmonicity of 200 MHz and to have the longer <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T_{1}$</tex-math></inline-formula> in consideration of surface energy participation ratios of TLS defects within the compact footprint. To achieve strong coupling strength but low qubit to qubit crosstalk (ZZ) for fast and high fidelity multi-qubit gates, direct coupler and compact multi-path coupler designs for coupling qubits are compared by numerically solving Hamiltonian of the coupled two qubits. Monte-Carlo simulation results on the yield rate of the extended circuits indicate that low manufacturing errors are required.

Escaping Detrimental Interactions with Microwave-Dressed Transmon Qubits

Superconducting transmon qubits with fixed frequencies are widely used in many applications due to their advantages of better coherence and less control lines compared to the frequency tunable qubits. However, any uncontrolled interactions with the qubits such as the two-level systems could lead to adverse impacts, degrading the qubit coherence and inducing crosstalk. To mitigate the detrimental effect from uncontrolled interactions between qubits and defect modes in fixed-frequency transmon qubits, we propose and demonstrate an active approach using an off-resonance microwave drive to dress the qubit and to induce the ac-Stark shift on the qubit frequency. We show experimentally that the qubit frequency can be tuned well away from the defect mode so that the impact on qubit coherence is greatly reduced while maintaining the universal controls of the qubit initialization, readout, and single-qubit gate operations. Our approach provides an effective way for tuning the qubit frequency and suppressing the detrimental effect from the defect modes that happen to be located close to the qubit frequency.

Design of an ultra-low mode volume piezo-optomechanical quantum transducer.

Coherent transduction of quantum states from the microwave to the optical domain can play a key role in quantum networking and distributed quantum computing. We present the design of a piezo-optomechanical device formed in a hybrid lithium niobate on silicon platform, that is suitable for microwave-to-optical quantum transduction. Our design is based on acoustic hybridization of an ultra-low mode volume piezoacoustic cavity with an optomechanical crystal cavity. The strong piezoelectric nature of lithium niobate allows us to mediate transduction via an acoustic mode which only minimally interacts with the lithium niobate, and is predominantly silicon-like, with very low electrical and acoustic loss. We estimate that this transducer can realize an intrinsic conversion efficiency of up to 35% with <0.5 added noise quanta when resonantly coupled to a superconducting transmon qubit and operated in pulsed mode at 10 kHz repetition rate. The performance improvement gained in such hybrid lithium niobate-silicon transducers make them suitable for heralded entanglement of qubits between superconducting quantum processors connected by optical fiber links.

All-Microwave Leakage Reduction Units for Quantum Error Correction with Superconducting Transmon Qubits.

Minimizing leakage from computational states is a challenge when using many-level systems like superconducting quantum circuits as qubits. We realize and extend the quantum-hardware-efficient, all-microwave leakage reduction unit (LRU) for transmons in a circuit QED architecture proposed by Battistel etal. This LRU effectively reduces leakage in the second- and third-excited transmon states with up to 99% efficacy in 220ns, with minimum impact on the qubit subspace. As a first application in the context of quantum error correction, we show how multiple simultaneous LRUs can reduce the error detection rate and suppress leakage buildup within 1% in data and ancilla qubits over 50 cycles of a weight-2 stabilizer measurement.

Quantum simulation of Hawking radiation and curved spacetime with a superconducting on-chip black hole

Hawking radiation is one of the quantum features of a black hole that can be understood as a quantum tunneling across the event horizon of the black hole, but it is quite difficult to directly observe the Hawking radiation of an astrophysical black hole. Here, we report a fermionic lattice-model-type realization of an analogue black hole by using a chain of 10 superconducting transmon qubits with interactions mediated by 9 transmon-type tunable couplers. The quantum walks of quasi-particle in the curved spacetime reflect the gravitational effect near the black hole, resulting in the behaviour of stimulated Hawking radiation, which is verified by the state tomography measurement of all 7 qubits outside the horizon. In addition, the dynamics of entanglement in the curved spacetime is directly measured. Our results would stimulate more interests to explore the related features of black holes using the programmable superconducting processor with tunable couplers.

Direct manipulation of a superconducting spin qubit strongly coupled to a transmon qubit

Spin qubits in semiconductors are currently one of the most promising architectures for quantum computing. However, they face challenges in realizing multi-qubit interactions over extended distances. Superconducting spin qubits provide a promising alternative by encoding a qubit in the spin degree of freedom of an Andreev level. Such an Andreev spin qubit could leverage the advantages of circuit quantum electrodynamic, enabled by an intrinsic spin-supercurrent coupling. The first realization of an Andreev spin qubit encoded the qubit in the excited states of a semiconducting weak-link, leading to frequent decay out of the computational subspace. Additionally, rapid qubit manipulation was hindered by the need for indirect Raman transitions. Here, we exploit a different qubit subspace, using the spin-split doublet ground state of an electrostatically-defined quantum dot Josephson junction with large charging energy. Additionally, we use a magnetic field to enable direct spin manipulation over a frequency range of 10 GHz. Using an all-electric microwave drive we achieve Rabi frequencies exceeding 200 MHz. We furthermore embed the Andreev spin qubit in a superconducting transmon qubit, demonstrating strong coherent qubit-qubit coupling. These results are a crucial step towards a hybrid architecture that combines the beneficial aspects of both superconducting and semiconductor qubits.

Spectral features of polaronic excitations in a superconducting analog simulator

We investigate spectral properties of polaronic excitations within the framework of an analog quantum simulator based on inductively coupled superconducting transmon qubits and microwave resonators. This system emulates a lattice model that describes a nonlocal coupling of an itinerant spinless-fermion excitation to dispersionless (Einstein-type) phonons through the Peierls and breathing-mode interaction mechanisms. The model is characterized by a sharp, level-crossing transition at a critical value of the effective excitation-phonon coupling strength; above the transition point, the ground state of this model corresponds to a heavily dressed (small-polaron) excitation. Using the kernel-polynomial method, we evaluate the momentum-frequency resolved spectral function of this system for a broad range of parameters. In particular, we underscore the ramifications of the fact that the zero-quasimomentum Bloch state of a bare excitation represents the exact eigenstate of the Hamiltonian of this system for an arbitrary excitation-phonon coupling strength. We also show that -- based on the numerically evaluated spectral function and its well-known relation with the survival probability of the initial, bare-excitation Bloch state (the Loschmidt echo) -- one can make predictions about the system dynamics following an excitation-phonon interaction quench. To make contact with anticipated experimental realizations, we utilize a previously proposed method for extracting dynamical-response functions in systems with local (single-qubit) addressability using the multiqubit (many-body) version of the Ramsey interference protocol.

Signatures of non-Markovianity of a superconducting qubit

We describe temporally correlated noise processes that influence the idle evolution of a superconducting transmon qubit. To model the composite qubit-environment system we use quantum circuit theory, and we show how a circuit Hamiltonian can be derived for transverse noise affecting the qubit. Based on the time-convolutionless projection operator method, we construct a time-local master equation which, when transformed to its canonical Lindblad form, exhbitis a decay rate that is negative at all times, corresponding to eternally non-Markovian dynamics. By expressing the solution of the master equation in the Kraus representation, we identify two crucial non-Markovian phenomena: periodic revivals of coherence, and the appearance of additional frequencies far from the qubit frequency in the precession of the qubit state. When a single qubit gate acts on the qubit state, these extra frequency terms rotate undesirably and they effectively act as the memory of the state prior to the rotation around the Bloch sphere.