A flux qubit readout scheme involving a dispersive technique coupled to a microstrip squid amplifier has been tested experimentally. Thanks to the almost quantum limited noise of this amplifier at low temperature, this readout device is very promising for a design with actual qubits. It's proof of principle and low noise performance have been tested by simulating the qubit presence applying a tiny flux change in the input squid. The resonant frequency of the amplifier is adjusted in-situ with a varactor diode to approach the frequency of the tank circuit. Depending on the sign of the transfer function, two operating mode (crossing or anticrossing regime) have been identified.
A flux qubit readout scheme involving a dispersive technique coupled to a microstrip squid amplifier has been tested experimentally. Thanks to the almost quantum limited noise of this amplifier at low temperature, this readout device is very promising for a design with actual qubits. It's proof of principle and low noise performance have been tested by simulating the qubit presence applying a tiny flux change in the input squid. The resonant frequency of the amplifier is adjusted in-situ with a varactor diode to approach the frequency of the tank circuit. Depending on the sign of the transfer function, two operating mode (crossing or anticrossing regime) have been identified.
A flux qubit readout scheme involving a dispersive technique coupled to a microstrip superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) amplifier has been tested experimentally. Thanks to the almost quantum limited noise of this amplifier at low temperature, this readout device is very promising for a design with actual qubits. Its proof of principle and low noise performance have been tested by simulating the qubit presence by applying a tiny flux change in the input SQUID. The resonant frequency of the amplifier is adjusted in situ with a varactor diode to approach the frequency of the tank circuit. Two operating modes (crossing or anticrossing regime) were identified.
A superconducting flux qubit is inductively coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer, capacitively shunted to form a 1.294-GHz resonator. The qubit-state-dependent resonator frequency is weakly probed with a microwave signal and detected with a microstrip SQUID amplifier. At a mean resonator occupation n=1.5 photons, the readout visibility is increased by a factor of 4.5 over that using a cryogenic semiconductor amplifier. As n is increased from 0.008 to 0.1, no reduction in T1 is observed, potentially enabling continuous monitoring of the qubit state.
Though superconducting qubits offer the potential for a scalable quantum computing architecture, the high-fidelity readout necessary to execute practical algorithms has thus far remained elusive. Moreover, achievements toward high fidelity have been accompanied by either long measurement times or demolition of the quantum state. In this dissertation, we address these issues with the novel integration of two ultralow-noise, superconducting amplifiers into separate dispersive flux qubit measurements. We first demonstrate a flux qubit inductively coupled to a 1.294-GHz nonlinear oscillator formed by a capacitively shunted DC SQUID. The frequency of the oscillator is modulated by the state of the qubit and is detected via microwave reflectometry. A microstrip SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) amplifier (MSA) is used to increase the sensitivity of the measurement over that of a semiconductor amplifier. In the second experiment, we report measurements of a flux qubit coupled via a shared inductance to a quasi-lumped element 5.78-GHz readout resonator formed by the parallel combination of an interdigitated capacitor and a meander line inductor. The system noise is substantially reduced by a near-quantum-limited Josephson parametric amplifier (paramp).We present measurements of increased fidelity and reduced measurement backaction using the MSA at readout excitation levels as low as one hundredth of a photon in the readout resonator, observing a 4.5-fold increase in the readout visibility. Furthermore, at low readout excitation levels below one tenth of a photon in the readout resonator, no reduction in T1 is observed, potentially enabling continuous monitoring of the qubit state. Using the paramp, we demonstrate a continuous, high-fidelity readout with sufficient bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio to resolve quantum jumps in the flux qubit. This is enabled by a readout which discriminates between the readout pointer state distributions to an error below one part in 1000. This, along with the ability to make many successive readouts in a time T1, permits the use of heralding to ensure initialization to a fiducial state, such as the ground state. This method enables us to eliminate errors due to spurious thermal population, increasing the fidelity to 93.9%. Finally, we use heralding to introduce a simple, fast qubit reset protocol without changing the system parameters to induce Purcell relaxation.
Though superconducting qubits offer the potential for a scalable quantum computing architecture, the high-fidelity readout necessary to execute practical algorithms has thus far remained elusive. Moreover, achievements toward high fidelity have been accompanied by either long measurement times or demolition of the quantum state. In this dissertation, we address these issues with the novel integration of two ultralow-noise, superconducting amplifiers into separate dispersive flux qubit measurements. We first demonstrate a flux qubit inductively coupled to a 1.294-GHz nonlinear oscillator formed by a capacitively shunted DC SQUID. The frequency of the oscillator is modulated by the state of the qubit and is detected via microwave reflectometry. A microstrip SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) amplifier (MSA) is used to increase the sensitivity of the measurement over that of a semiconductor amplifier. In the second experiment, we report measurements of a flux qubit coupled via a shared inductance to a quasi-lumped element 5.78-GHz readout resonator formed by the parallel combination of an interdigitated capacitor and a meander line inductor. The system noise is substantially reduced by a near-quantum-limited Josephson parametric amplifier (paramp).We present measurements of increased fidelity and reduced measurement backaction using the MSA at readout excitation levels as low as one hundredth of a photon in the readout resonator, observing a 4.5-fold increase in the readout visibility. Furthermore, at low readout excitation levels below one tenth of a photon in the readout resonator, no reduction in T1 is observed, potentially enabling continuous monitoring of the qubit state. Using the paramp, we demonstrate a continuous, high-fidelity readout with sufficient bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio to resolve quantum jumps in the flux qubit. This is enabled by a readout which discriminates between the readout pointer state distributions to an error below one part in 1000. This, along with the ability to make many successive readouts in a time T1, permits the use of heralding to ensure initialization to a fiducial state, such as the ground state. This method enables us to eliminate errors due to spurious thermal population, increasing the fidelity to 93.9%. Finally, we use heralding to introduce a simple, fast qubit reset protocol without changing the system parameters to induce Purcell relaxation.
The resonant frequency of an amplifier based on a low-temperature dc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) is tuned by varying the capacitance across the end of the input microstrip by means of a varactor diode. The resonant frequency can be reduced substantially, for example, from 190 to 110 MHz, while maintaining an on-resonance gain of 27–28 dB. Two microstrip SQUID amplifiers with the same resonant frequency are cascaded to achieve a gain of 33.5±1 dB at 386 MHz; with the SQUIDs tuned to different frequencies, the gain is 22 dB or higher from about 260 to 420 MHz.
A nonlinear resonant circuit comprising a SQUID magnetometer and a shunting capacitor is studied as a readout scheme for a persistent-current qubit. The flux state of the qubit is detected as a change in the Josephson inductance of the SQUID magnetometer, which in turn mediates a shift in the resonant frequency of the readout circuit. The nonlinearity and resulting hysteresis in the resonant behavior are characterized as a function of the power of both the input drive and the associated resonance-peak response. Numerical simulations based on a nonlinear circuit model shows that the observed nonlinearity is dominated by the effect due to an ac flux rather than current bias through the Josephson inductor.