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arXiv:1301.1719 · Physical Review A

High-fidelity controlled- σZ gate for resonator-based superconducting quantum computers

Joydip Ghosh, Andrei Galiautdinov, Zhongyuan Zhou, Alexander N. Korotkov, John M. Martinis, Michael R. Geller

Published Feb 8, 2013• 87 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A possible building block for a scalable quantum computer has recently been demonstrated [Mariantoni et al., Science 334, 61 (2011)]. This architecture consists of superconducting qubits capacitively coupled both to individual memory resonators as well as a common bus. In this work we study a natural primitive entangling gate for this and related resonator-based architectures, which consists of a controlled-${\ensuremath{\sigma}}^{z}$ (cz) operation between a qubit and the bus. The cz gate is implemented with the aid of the noncomputational qubit $|2\ensuremath{\rangle}$ state [Strauch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 167005 (2003)]. Assuming phase or transmon qubits with 300 MHz anharmonicity, we show that by using only low frequency qubit-bias control it is possible to implement the qubit-bus cz gate with 99.9$%$ (99.99$%$) fidelity in about $17\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ns}$ ($23\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ns}$) with a realistic two-parameter pulse profile, plus two auxiliary $z$ rotations. The fidelity measure we refer to here is a state-averaged intrinsic process fidelity, which does not include any effects of noise or decoherence. These results apply to a multiqubit device that includes strongly coupled memory resonators. We investigate the performance of the qubit-bus cz gate as a function of qubit anharmonicity, identify the dominant intrinsic error mechanism and derive an associated fidelity estimator, quantify the pulse shape sensitivity and precision requirements, simulate qubit-qubit cz gates that are mediated by the bus resonator, and also attempt a global optimization of system parameters including resonator frequencies and couplings. Our results are relevant for a wide range of superconducting hardware designs that incorporate resonators and suggest that it should be possible to demonstrate a $99.9%$ cz gate with existing transmon qubits, which would constitute an important step towards the development of an error-corrected superconducting quantum computer.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.87.022309

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We propose a simple scheme for generating a high-fidelity controlled-Z (CZ) gate in a three-component qubit/bus/qubit device. The corresponding tune/detune pulse is single-step, with a near-resonant constant undershoot between the 200 and 101 states. During the pulse, the frequency of the first qubit is kept fixed, while the frequency of the second qubit is varied in such a way as to bring the 200 and 101 states close to resonance. As a result, the phase of the 101 state is accumulated via the corresponding second-order anticrossing. For experimentally realistic qubit frequencies and a 75 MHz coupling (150 MHz splitting), a 45 ns gate time can be realized with >99.99% intrinsic fidelity, with errors arising due to the non-adiabaticity of the ramps. The CZ pulse is characterized by two adjustable parameters: the undershoot magnitude and undershoot duration. The pulse does not load an excitation into the bus. This by-passes the previously proposed need for two additional qubit-to-bus and bus-to-qubit MOVE operations. Combined with the recently predicted high-fidelity idling operation in the RezQu architecture [A. Galiautdinov, J. Martinis, A. Korotkov (unpublished)], this controlled-Z scheme may prove useful for implementations on the first generation quantum computers.
Hybrid superconducting architectures combining different types of qubits offer a promising platform for exploiting their complementary advantages, yet high-fidelity entangling gates remain challenging because of strong nonlinearities and residual qubit-qubit interactions. Here, we propose a high-fidelity controlled-Z (CZ) gate for a hybrid circuit comprising a fluxonium qubit, a fixed-frequency transmon qubit, and a flux-tunable transmon coupler. By modulating only the external magnetic flux applied to the coupler, the qubit-qubit interaction is dynamically engineered for conditional-phase accumulation while the residual interaction is suppressed at idle, mitigating spectator-induced errors. We employ a low-dimensional Fourier-cosine pulse parameterization and a physically motivated cost function to independently suppress conditional-phase errors and leakage from the computational subspace. Numerical simulations demonstrate that a microwave-free CZ gate can be realized within 25ns25 \mathrm{ns}25ns, with an average gate fidelity exceeding 99.99%99.99\%99.99% and leakage below 10−510^{-5}10−5. Using experimentally relevant superconducting-qubit parameters and accounting for decoherence, the proposed scheme maintains a CZ-gate fidelity of approximately 99.9%99.9\%99.9%. We further extend the analysis to larger coupled architectures and find that the CZ-gate infidelity remains below 10−410^{-4}10−4 in the presence of spectator qubits. These results establish single-parameter flux control as a simple and robust approach for realizing high-fidelity entangling gates in heterogeneous superconducting quantum architectures.
Achieving high-fidelity single-qubit gates, two-qubit gates, and qubit readout is critical for building scalable, error-corrected quantum computers. However, device parameters that enhance one operation often degrade the others, making simultaneous optimization challenging. Here, we demonstrate that careful tuning of qubit-coupler coupling strengths in a superconducting circuit with two transmon qubits coupled via a tunable coupler enables high-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates, without compromising readout performance. Furthermore, we introduce a new calibration protocol for diabatic controlled- Z gates, phased-averaged leakage error amplification (PALEA), which enables efficient suppression of coherent gate errors and leakage to noncomputational states. Using PALEA in combination with careful tuning of qubit-coupler coupling strengths, we achieve a 40 h-averaged CZ gate fidelity of 99.93 %, simultaneous single-qubit gate fidelities of 99.98 %, and readout fidelities over 99.94 % in a single device. Our results demonstrate a viable path toward scaling up superconducting quantum processors while maintaining consistently high gate and readout fidelities.