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arXiv:2011.10011 · PRX Quantum

Proposal for Entangling Gates on Fluxonium Qubits via a Two-Photon Transition

Konstantin Nesterov, Quentin Ficheux, Vladimir E. Manucharyan, Maxim Vavilov

Published Jun 22, 2021• 24 citations
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Abstract

We propose a family of microwave-activated entangling gates on two capacitively coupled fluxonium qubits.A microwave pulse applied to either qubit at a frequency near the half-frequency of the |00 -|11 transition induces two-photon Rabi oscillations with a negligible leakage outside the computational subspace, owing to the strong anharmonicity of fluxoniums.By adjusting the drive frequency, amplitude, and duration, we obtain the gate family that is locally equivalent to the fermionic-simulation gates such as √ SWAP-like and controlled-phase gates.The gate error can be tuned below 10 -4 for a pulse duration under 100 ns without excessive circuit parameter matching.Given that the fluxonium coherence time can exceed 1 ms, our gate scheme is promising for large-scale quantum processors.

DOI
10.1103/prxquantum.2.020345

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We propose a family of microwave-activated entangling gates on two capacitively coupled fluxonium qubits.A microwave pulse applied to either qubit at a frequency near the half-frequency of the |00 -|11 transition induces two-photon Rabi oscillations with a negligible leakage outside the computational subspace, owing to the strong anharmonicity of fluxoniums.By adjusting the drive frequency, amplitude, and duration, we obtain the gate family that is locally equivalent to the fermionic-simulation gates such as √ SWAP-like and controlled-phase gates.The gate error can be tuned below 10 -4 for a pulse duration under 100 ns without excessive circuit parameter matching.Given that the fluxonium coherence time can exceed 1 ms, our gate scheme is promising for large-scale quantum processors.
The superconducting fluxonium circuit is an artificial atom with a strongly anharmonic spectrum: When biased at a half flux quantum, the lowest qubit transition is an order of magnitude smaller in frequency than those to higher levels. Similar to conventional atomic systems, such a frequency separation between the computational and noncomputational subspaces allows independent optimizations of the qubit coherence and two-qubit interactions. Here, we describe a controlled-ZZZ gate for two fluxoniums connected either capacitively or inductively, with qubit transitions fixed near 500MHz500\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{MHz}500MHz. The gate is activated by a microwave drive at a resonance involving the second excited state. We estimate intrinsic gate fidelities over 99.9% with gate times below 100 ns.
We demonstrate a controlled-Z gate between capacitively coupled fluxonium qubits with transition frequencies 72.3 MHz72.3~\textrm{MHz}72.3 MHz and 136.3 MHz136.3~\textrm{MHz}136.3 MHz. The gate is activated by a 61.6 ns61.6~\textrm{ns}61.6 ns long pulse at the frequency between non-computational transitions ∣10⟩−∣20⟩|10\rangle - |20\rangle∣10⟩−∣20⟩ and ∣11⟩−∣21⟩|11\rangle - |21\rangle∣11⟩−∣21⟩, during which the qubits complete only 444 and 888 Larmor periods, respectively. The measured gate error of (8±1)×10−3(8\pm1)\times 10^{-3}(8±1)×10−3 is limited by decoherence in the non-computational subspace, which will likely improve in the next generation devices. Although our qubits are about fifty times slower than transmons, the two-qubit gate is faster than microwave-activated gates on transmons, and the gate error is on par with the lowest reported. Architectural advantages of low-frequency fluxoniums include long qubit coherence time, weak hybridization in the computational subspace, suppressed residual ZZZZZZ-coupling rate (here 46 kHz46~\mathrm{kHz}46 kHz), and absence of either excessive parameter matching or complex pulse shaping requirements.
Two qubit gates constitute fundamental building blocks in the realization of large-scale quantum devices. Using superconducting circuits, two-qubit gates have previously been implemented in different ways with each method aiming to maximize gate fidelity. Another important goal of a new gate scheme is to minimize the complexity of gate calibration. In this work, we demonstrate a high-fidelity two-qubit gate between two fluxonium qubits enabled by an intermediate capacitively coupled transmon. The coupling strengths between the qubits and the coupler are designed to minimize residual crosstalk while still allowing for fast gate operations. The gate is based on frequency selectively exciting the coupler using a microwave drive to complete a 2πππ rotation, conditional on the state of the fluxonium qubits. When successful, this drive scheme implements a conditional phase gate. Using analytically derived pulse shapes, we minimize unwanted excitations of the coupler and obtain gate errors of 10−210^{-2}10−2 for gate times below 60~ns. At longer durations, our gate is limited by relaxation of the coupler. Our results show how carefully designed control pulses can speed up frequency selective entangling gates.
The superconducting fluxonium qubit has a great potential for high-fidelity quantum gates with its long coherence times and strong anharmonicity at the half-flux-quantum sweet spot. However, current implementations of two-qubit gates compromise fluxonium's coherence properties by requiring either a temporary population of the noncomputational states or tuning the magnetic flux off the sweet spot. Here we realize a fast all-microwave cross-resonance gate between two capacitively coupled fluxoniums with the qubit dynamics well confined to the computational space. We demonstrate a direct controlled not (cnot) gate in 70 ns with fidelity up to F=0.9949(6)\mathcal{F}=0.9949(6)F=0.9949(6) despite the limitations of a suboptimal measurement setup and device coherence. Our results project a possible pathway towards reducing the two-qubit error rate near to or below ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ with present-day technologies.
We analyze the cross-resonance effect for fluxonium circuits and investigate a two-qubit gate scheme based on selective darkening of a transition. In this approach, two microwave pulses at the frequency of the target qubit are applied simultaneously with a proper ratio between their amplitudes to achieve a controlled-not operation. We study in detail coherent gate dynamics and calculate gate error. With nonunitary effects accounted for, we demonstrate that gate error below ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ is possible for realistic hardware parameters. This number is facilitated by long coherence times of computational transitions and strong anharmonicity of fluxoniums, which easily prevents excitation to higher excited states during the gate microwave drive.
The superconducting fluxonium qubit has a great potential for high-fidelity quantum gates with its long coherence times and strong anharmonicity at the half flux quantum sweet spot. However, current implementations of two-qubit gates compromise fluxonium's coherence properties by requiring either a temporary population of the non-computational states or tuning the magnetic flux off the sweet spot. Here we realize a fast all-microwave cross-resonance gate between two capacitively-coupled fluxoniums with the qubit dynamics well confined to the computational space. We demonstrate a direct CNOT gate in 70 ns with fidelity up to F=0.9949(6)\mathcal{F}=0.9949(6)F=0.9949(6) despite the limitations of a sub-optimal measurement setup and device coherence. Our results project a possible pathway towards reducing the two-qubit error rate below 10−410^{-4}10−4 with present-day technologies.