Superconducting circuits are highly controllable platforms to manipulate quantum states, which make them particularly promising for quantum information processing. We show here how the existence of a distance-independent interaction between microwave resonators coupled capacitively through a qubit offers an alternative control parameter toward this goal. This interaction is able to induce an idling point between resonant resonators, and its state-dependent nature allows one to control the flow of information between the resonators. The advantage of this scheme over the previous one is demonstrated through the generation of high-fidelity NOON states between the resonators, with a lower number of operations than previous schemes. Beyond superconducting circuits, our proposal could also apply to atomic lattices with clock transitions in optical cavities, for example.
Superconducting circuits are highly controllable platforms to manipulate quantum states, which make them particularly promising for quantum information processing. We show here how the existence of a distance-independent interaction between microwave resonators coupled capacitively through a qubit offers an alternative control parameter toward this goal. This interaction is able to induce an idling point between resonant resonators, and its state-dependent nature allows one to control the flow of information between the resonators. The advantage of this scheme over the previous one is demonstrated through the generation of high-fidelity NOON states between the resonators, with a lower number of operations than previous schemes. Beyond superconducting circuits, our proposal could also apply to atomic lattices with clock transitions in optical cavities, for example.
One of the key elements in circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) is the superconducting microwave resonator, which can enable strong coupling to and between nanoscale quantum systems, and as a result has emerged as an essential tool for both quantum information and quantum sensing. In this thesis, I will discuss new applications of superconducting resonators in both of these fields, which illustrates how quantum information and quantum sensing can be strongly tied together. As the field of quantum information continues to grow, various platforms for realizing a quantum computer have been proposed. One attractive platform is to control and manipulate the spin of an electron to form spin qubits, which have demonstrated a long coherence time, weak coupling to the environment, and high fidelity single- and two-qubit gates. However, scaling beyond two qubits has proven challenging, as has incorporating long-range coupling, although both are crucial for making spin qubits a scalable quantum computing platform. The confinement of electromagnetic fields in superconducting resonators enables strong coupling to small systems, such as the single electrons of a spin qubit. In the first part of this thesis, I will describe how a singlet-triplet spin qubit coupled to a high-impedance superconducting resonator constitutes a promising architecture for mediating long-ranged interactions based on a longitudinal coupling between the resonator and qubit. I will discuss the technical developments needed to successfully implement this novel type of interaction in a hybrid spin qubit-resonator device. This type of interaction has several advantages over the more commonly studied transverse coupling scheme: it does not require careful tuning of the qubit frequency to match that of the resonator, which facilitates scaling to a large number of qubits, and also avoids the loss of coherence, which is inevitable in resonant coupling. This type of interaction therefore opens promising paths for generating high-fidelity long-ranged two-qubit coupling by employing superconducting microwave resonators. By adapting techniques used in quantum information, we have also developed a new technique in quantum sensing, where we employ superconducting resonators as a probe of quantum materials such as mesoscopic systems, two-dimensional materials, and heterostructures, which are otherwise challenging to experimentally access with conventional techniques. In the second part of my thesis, I will discuss how implementing cQED techniques from quantum information allows us to probe the symmetry of the order parameter in unconventional superconductors. Unconventional superconductors are not readily available, and we therefore study an engineered system that comprises of interfacing a ferromagnet and superconductor, in which unconventional pairing can be induced into the ferromagnet. This platform allows us to simultaneously excite spin waves, a collective excitation of spins, in the ferromagnet, which opens new directions for studying interactions between coherently coupled magnons (quanta of spin waves) and unconventional superconducting states. Finally, by applying the same technique to a two-dimensional (2D) superconductor, tungsten ditelluride, we leverage this platform in an attempt to study the order parameter of its intrinsic superconducting phase. The nature of the order parameter in this material remains an open question, as both topological and superconducting phases can exist, possibly simultaneously. This work thus demonstrates a unique use of superconducting resonators beyond quantum information applications.
We present an efficient method to generate Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) entanglement of two microwave photons with different frequencies in two superconducting resonators. Our scheme is based on the sideband couplings of two resonators with a single gap-tunable superconducting quantum circuits driven by a controlled field. By the proper choice of the physical parameters, the nonlinear interaction of parametric down-conversion occurs between two resonators while the superconducting qubit remains in the original state, which is responsible for the entanglement generation. The present scheme would provide a promising alternative approach to scalable quantum information processing in solid-state systems.
Generating high-fidelity, tunable entanglement between qubits is crucial for realizing gate-based quantum computation. In superconducting circuits, tunable interactions are often implemented using flux-tunable qubits or coupling elements, adding control complexity and noise sources. Here, we realize a tunable ZZ interaction between two transmon qubits with fixed frequencies and fixed coupling, induced by driving both transmons off-resonantly. We show tunable coupling over one order of magnitude larger than the static coupling, and change the sign of the interaction, enabling cancellation of the idle coupling. Further, this interaction is amenable to large quantum processors: the drive frequency can be flexibly chosen to avoid spurious transitions, and because both transmons are driven, it is resilient to microwave crosstalk. We apply this interaction to implement a controlled phase (CZ) gate with a gate fidelity of 99.43(1)% as measured by cycle benchmarking, and we find the fidelity is limited by incoherent errors.
Abstract We propose a superconducting circuit for quantum information processing (QIP) on high-quality (high-Q) superconducting resonators (SRs). In the circuit, two high-Q SRs are coupled to a high-frequency SR (acts as a quantum bus) assisted by superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) terminate in both ends of the high-frequency resonator. Each coupling strength between each high-Q resonator and the high-frequency resonator can be tuned independently from zero to the strong-coupling regime via the external flux threading through the SQUID. In the circuit, the frequencies of the two high-Q resonators are far detuned from the high-frequency resonator. That is, quantum information stored in high-Q resonators cannot be populated in the high-frequency resonator, which lets the bus can be designed to link lots of high-Q resonators for the large-scale QIP. To show the circuit can be used to achieve the QIP, we present a high-fidelity scheme to generate Bell state on the two high-Q resonators. The scheme shows that, to achieve the entanglement operation on high-Q resonators, fast tuning on the coupling is no longer mandatory and the coupling strengths are not required to be turned on or off simultaneously.
Generating high-fidelity, tunable entanglement between qubits is crucial for realizing gate-based quantum computation. In superconducting circuits, tunable interactions are often implemented using flux-tunable qubits or coupling elements, adding control complexity and noise sources. Here, we realize a tunable ZZ interaction between two transmon qubits with fixed frequencies and fixed coupling, induced by driving both transmons off resonantly. We show tunable coupling over 1 order of magnitude larger than the static coupling, and change the sign of the interaction, enabling cancellation of the idle coupling. Further, this interaction is amenable to large quantum processors: the drive frequency can be flexibly chosen to avoid spurious transitions, and because both transmons are driven, it is resilient to microwave cross talk. We apply this interaction to implement a controlled phase (CZ) gate with a gate fidelity of 99.43(1)% as measured by cycle benchmarking, and we find the fidelity is limited by incoherent errors.
The generation, manipulation and fundamental understanding of entanglement lies at very heart of quantum mechanics. Among various types of entangled states, the NOON states are a kind of special quantum entangled states with two orthogonal component states in maximal superposition, which have a wide range of potential applications in quantum communication and quantum information processing. Here, we propose a fast and simple scheme for generating NOON states of photons in two superconducting resonators by using a single superconducting transmon qutrit. Because only one superconducting qutrit and two resonators are used, the experimental setup for this scheme is much simplified when compared with the previous proposals requiring a setup of two superconducting qutrits and three cavities. In addition, this scheme is easier and faster to implement than the previous proposals, which require using a complex microwave pulse, or a small pulse Rabi frequency in order to avoid nonresonant transitions.