Projective measurement is a commonly used assumption in quantum mechanics. However, advances in quantum measurement techniques allow for partial measurements, which accurately estimate state information while keeping the wavefunction intact. In this dissertation, we employ partial measurements to study two phenomena. First, we investigate an uncertainty relation -- in the style of Heisenberg's 1929 thought experiment -- which includes partial measurements in addition to projective measurements. We find that a weak partial measurement can decrease the uncertainty between two incompatible (non-commuting) observables. In the second study, we investigate the foundation of irreversible dynamics resulting from partial measurements. We do so by comparing the forward and time-reversed probabilities of measurement outcomes resulting from post-selected feedback protocols with both causal and reversed-causal order. We find that the statistics of partial measurements produce entropy in accordance with generalized second laws of thermodynamics. We perform these experiments using superconducting qubits. This dissertation also describes the fabrication process for these devices and details a novel fabrication technique that allows fast, single-step lithography of Josephson-junction superconducting circuits. The technique simplifies processing by utilizing a direct-write photolithography system, in contrast to traditional electron-beam lithography. Despite their large lithographic area, Josephson junctions made with this method have low critical currents and high coherence times.
Projective measurement is a commonly used assumption in quantum mechanics. However, advances in quantum measurement techniques allow for partial measurements, which accurately estimate state information while keeping the wavefunction intact. In this dissertation, we employ partial measurements to study two phenomena. First, we investigate an uncertainty relation -- in the style of Heisenberg's 1929 thought experiment -- which includes partial measurements in addition to projective measurements. We find that a weak partial measurement can decrease the uncertainty between two incompatible (non-commuting) observables. In the second study, we investigate the foundation of irreversible dynamics resulting from partial measurements. We do so by comparing the forward and time-reversed probabilities of measurement outcomes resulting from post-selected feedback protocols with both causal and reversed-causal order. We find that the statistics of partial measurements produce entropy in accordance with generalized second laws of thermodynamics. We perform these experiments using superconducting qubits. This dissertation also describes the fabrication process for these devices and details a novel fabrication technique that allows fast, single-step lithography of Josephson-junction superconducting circuits. The technique simplifies processing by utilizing a direct-write photolithography system, in contrast to traditional electron-beam lithography. Despite their large lithographic area, Josephson junctions made with this method have low critical currents and high coherence times.
Projective measurement is a commonly used assumption in quantum mechanics. However, advances in quantum measurement techniques allow for partial measurements, which accurately estimate state information while keeping the wavefunction intact. We employ partial measurements to study two phenomena. First, we investigate an uncertainty relation—in the style of Heisenberg’s 1929 thought experiment—which includes partial measurements in addition to projective measurements. We find that a weak partial measurement can decrease the uncertainty between two incompatible (non-commuting) observables. In the second study, we investigate the foundation of irreversible dynamics resulting from partial measurements. We do so by comparing the forward and time-reversed probabilities of measurement outcomesresulting from post-selected feedback protocols with both causal and reversed-causal order. We find that the statistics of partial measurements produce entropy in accordance with generalized second laws of thermodynamics. We perform these experiments using superconducting qubits. We describe the fabrication process for these devices and detail a novel fabrication technique that allows fast, single-step lithography of Josephson-junction-based superconducting circuits. The technique simplifies processing by utilizing a direct-write photolithography system, in contrast to traditional
We introduce a type of measurements which generalize the so-called "partial measurements" performed in recent years with phase qubits. While in the case of partial measurements it has been demonstrated that one could undo the effect of the measurement only for non-switching events, we show here that generalized partial measurements can be reversed probabilistically for both switching and non-switching events. We calculate the associated Fisher information and discuss the estimation sensitivity for quantum tomography. Two ways of implementing this type of measurements with superconducting qubits are proposed.
Sub-μm Josephson Junctions for Superconducting Quantum Devices
For high-performance superconducting quantum devices based on Josephson junctions (JJs), decreasing lateral sizes is of great importance. Fabrication of sub-μm JJs is challenging, due to nonflat surfaces with step heights of up to several 100 nm generated during the fabrication process. We have refined a fabrication process with significantly decreased film thicknesses, resulting in almost flat surfaces at intermediate steps during the JJ definition. In combination with a mix-and-match process, combining electron-beam lithography and conventional photolithography, we can fabricate JJs with lateral dimensions down to 0.023 μm2. We propose this refined process as an alternative to the commonly used chemical-mechanical polishing procedure. Transport measurements of JJs, having critical-current densities ranging from 50 to 104A/cm2, are presented at 4.2 K. Our JJ process yields excellent quality parameters, Rsg/RNup to ~ 50, Vmfrom 15 to 80 mV and Vgapup to 2.81 mV, and also allows the fabrication of high-quality, sub-μm wide, long JJs (LJJs) for the study of Josephson vortex behavior. The developed technique can also be used for similar multilayer processes and is very promising for fabricating sub- μm JJs for quantum devices such as SQUIDs, qubits, and SIS mixers.
In quantum mechanics, measurements disturb the state of the system being measured. This disturbance is largest for complementary properties (e.g. position and momentum) and hence limits the precision with which such properties can be determined simultaneously. Often, this fact is conflated with Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which refers to an uncertainty relation between complementary properties that is intrinsic to quantum states. In this thesis, the distinction between these two fundamental characteristics of quantum mechanics is made clear. At the intersection of the two are "joint measurements", which circumvent measurement disturbance to simultaneously determine complementary properties. They have applications in quantum metrology and enable a direct measurement of quantum states. The focus of this thesis is on the latter. The thesis is structured in the following way. The first chapter serves as an introduction to joint measurements. It surveys the seminal works in the field, doing so in a chronological manner to provide some historical context. The remainder of the thesis discusses two strategies to experimentally achieve joint measurements. The first strategy is to sequentially measure the complementary properties, making these measurements weak so that they do not disrupt each other. The second strategy is to first clone the system being measured, and then measure each complementary property on a separate clone. Both strategies are experimentally demonstrated on polarized photons, but can be readily extended to other systems.
Micro-fabricated superconducting circuits have emerged as a leading candidate for quantum computers. However, typical error rates of 10-3 for quantum gates remain a challenge for performing error correction and need to be further decreased for achieving practical quantum computation. Improving qubit coherence times for superconducting qubits is a continuous endeavor in order to decrease error rates. As part of this effort, a topic addressed in this dissertation is the study of the generation mechanism and dynamics of non-equilibrium quasiparticles (QPs), which are electron-like excitations of a superconductor. This source of decoherence was studied by measuring the rate of single-electron changes in the parity state of multiple charge-sensitive transmon qubits under different conditions. The presence of non-equilibrium QPs in superconducting resonators and qubits operating at millikelvin temperature has been known for decades. Understanding the sources and dynamics of these QPs is crucial to evaluate and improve the performance of the devices. Specifically, for superconducting qubits, a single QP tunneling across the Josephson junction changes the total charge parity from even to odd or vice versa, and can induce energy relaxation and dephasing, limiting the coherence of the device. To study the dynamics of non-equilibrium QPs, I utilized a Ramsey-like pulse sequence to measure the rate of single-electron parity changes in transmon qubits, which had a weak charge dispersion, with different shunting capacitor geometries and materials. I started out by measuring a charge parity rate of ~ 33 s-1 for a grounded "x-mon" qubit and ~ 17 s-1 for a galvanically isolated "two-pads" qubit with our standard setup. These rates decreased to ~ 5 s-1 and ~ 2 s-1 for the x-mon and two-pads respectively when IR-filters and extra layers of shielding were installed. From my measurements, I found that the charge parity rates are sensitive to the geometry of the shunting capacitor, weakly depend on the amount of shielding surrounding the device, and independent of using Al or Ta for the superconducting shunting capacitor. To distinguish between two possible mechanisms for the parity switching, I measured the parity rates after cooling one of the qubit devices in an external magnetic field to induce vortices in the superconducting electrodes. After increasing the magnetic field above 23 μT, I measured a faster QP trapping rate and a much smaller T1, suggesting that at least one vortex was added to the superconducting electrode near the Josephson junction. On the other hand, the measured charge parity rates exhibited no clear dependence on the background QP trapping rates. These data suggest that a large portion of parity switching events occurs from QPs being produced at the Josephson junction, where pair-breaking radiation is rectified into QPs by the junction, as opposed to tunneling of QPs residing in the electrodes. To understand the difference in the measured parity rates, I simulated the absorption efficiency of pair-breaking radiation for my two designs and observed a similar difference in absorption rates when a single-mode blackbody radiation with an effective temperature T* ~ 300 mK was assumed to be illuminating the devices. This large T*, which is significantly higher than the device's nominal temperature of 20 mK, is consistent with values reported in the literature. However, its physical origin remains not fully understood. For the other part of my dissertation, I developed a new simplified process for making superconducting air bridges. Air bridges are used to suppress unwanted extraneous high frequency chip modes parasitic to superconducting quantum circuits that can couple to qubits and cause decoherence. Traditional ways of making air bridges utilize thermal reflow to create arched photoresist scaffolds that are limited in heights. This results in insufficient mechanical strength of the bridges which tend to collapse when spanning to larger lengths. My simplified fabrication method that utilizes two-photon lithography, a technique that enables creation of three-dimensional micron-scale structures, relaxes this limitation and is capable of making mechanically stable bridges with lengths up to 100 μm. The resulting Al air bridges, having a superconducting transition temperature of Tc = 1.08 mK and a dc residual resistivity ratio of 3.85, were confirmed to form a good electrical contact with the base metal layers and exhibit a small measurable amount of rf loss when placed over coplanar waveguide resonators, on par with other air bridge fabrication methods.
Grounding is crucial in coplanar superconducting circuit architectures, since chip complexity and scalability increase, asymmetries and discontinuities in the ground plane arise. These irregularities excite parasitic slotline modes, which can be coupled to qubits or other resonant modes and degrade circuit performance. Wirebonds are one of the most frequently used crossovers for grounding—also in Quanten Nano Zentrum Tirol (QNZT) — however, due to their size, they introduce large inductive losses and are not practical for large-scale chips. The small structure of airbridges causes lower inductive losses and is compatible with scalable superconducting devices because the density of airbridges can be increased simply by modifying the fabrication design. In this project, airbridges are fabricated for the first time in the QNZT using a single step grayscale electron beam lithography technique, inspired by the work of Janzen et al. [1]. To optimize the grayscale electron beam lithography process, special techniques are employed, such as delayed development [2] and 3D proximity effect correction (PEC) [3]. In addition, pure Methyl Isobutyl Ketone (MIBK) is used as the developer. The lower contrast characteristic of the positive resist is achieved by pure MIBK and delayed development, so that this technique increases the precision of the resist height after development. A high temperature reflow process is avoided, which can alter the characteristics of Josephson junctions. In addition, PEC is employed to increase the precision of the lithographic process, which is essential in low acceleration voltage Electron Beam Lithography(EBL). Eventually, we achieved a smooth arcshaped airbridge mask with over 99% yield for airbridges ranging from 45 µm to 65 µm and over 80% yield for 85 µm airbridges. These structures also demonstrated durability against dicing, ultrasonication and N2 blow-drying. Finally, two chips with CPW resonators grounded by airbridges are characterized at cryogenic temperatures.