Autoparametric Resonance Extending the Bit-Flip Time of a Cat Qubit up to 0.3 s
Antoine Marquet, Antoine Essig, Joachim Cohen, Nathanaël Cottet, Anil Murani, Emanuele Albertinale, Simon Dupouy, Audrey Bienfait, Théau Peronnin, S. Jézouin, Raphaël Lescanne, Benjamin Huard
Cat qubits, for which logical |0⟩ and |1⟩ are coherent states |±α⟩ of a harmonic mode, offer a promising route towards quantum error correction. Using dissipation to our advantage so that photon pairs of the harmonic mode are exchanged with single photons of its environment, it is possible to stabilize the logical states and exponentially increase the bit-flip time of the cat qubit with the photon number |α|2 . A large two-photon dissipation rate κ2 ensures fast qubit manipulation and short error-correction cycles, which are instrumental to correct the remaining phase-flip errors in a repetition code of cat qubits. Here, we introduce and operate an autoparametric superconducting circuit that couples a mode containing the cat qubit to a lossy mode whose frequency is set at twice that of the cat mode. This passive coupling does not require a parametric pump, and it reaches a rate κ2/2π≈2 MHz . With such a strong two-photon dissipation, bit-flip errors of the autoparametric cat qubit are prevented for a characteristic time up to 0.3 s with only a mild impact on phase-flip errors. In addition, we illustrate how the phase of a quantum superposition between |α⟩ and |−α⟩ can be arbitrarily changed by driving the harmonic mode while keeping the engineered dissipation active. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Cat qubits, for which logical |0⟩ and |1⟩ are coherent states |±α⟩ of a harmonic mode, offer a promising route towards quantum error correction. Using dissipation to our advantage so that photon pairs of the harmonic mode are exchanged with single photons of its environment, it is possible to stabilize the logical states and exponentially increase the bit-flip time of the cat qubit with the photon number |α|2 . A large two-photon dissipation rate κ2 ensures fast qubit manipulation and short error-correction cycles, which are instrumental to correct the remaining phase-flip errors in a repetition code of cat qubits. Here, we introduce and operate an autoparametric superconducting circuit that couples a mode containing the cat qubit to a lossy mode whose frequency is set at twice that of the cat mode. This passive coupling does not require a parametric pump, and it reaches a rate κ2/2π≈2 MHz . With such a strong two-photon dissipation, bit-flip errors of the autoparametric cat qubit are prevented for a characteristic time up to 0.3 s with only a mild impact on phase-flip errors. In addition, we illustrate how the phase of a quantum superposition between |α⟩ and |−α⟩ can be arbitrarily changed by driving the harmonic mode while keeping the engineered dissipation active. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Cat qubits, a type of bosonic qubit encoded in a harmonic oscillator, can exhibit an exponential noise bias against bit-flip errors with increasing mean photon number. Here, we focus on cat qubits stabilized by two-photon dissipation, where pairs of photons are added and removed from a harmonic oscillator by an auxiliary, lossy buffer mode. This process requires a large loss rate and strong nonlinearities of the buffer mode that must not degrade the coherence and linearity of the oscillator. In this work, we show how to overcome this challenge by coloring the loss environment of the buffer mode with a multipole filter and optimizing the circuit to take into account additional inductances in the buffer mode. Using these techniques, we achieve near-ideal enhancement of cat-qubit bit-flip times with increasing photon number, reaching over 0.1 s with a mean photon number of only 4. Concurrently, our cat qubit remains highly phase coherent, with phase-flip times corresponding to an effective lifetime of T 1 , eff ≃ 70 μ s , comparable with the bare oscillator lifetime. We achieve this performance even in the presence of an ancilla transmon, used for reading out the cat-qubit states, by engineering a tunable oscillator-ancilla dispersive coupling. Furthermore, the low nonlinearity of the harmonic oscillator mode allows us to perform pulsed cat-qubit stabilization, an important control primitive, where the stabilization can remain off for a significant fraction (e.g., two-thirds) of a 3 μ s cycle without degrading bit-flip times. These advances are important for the realization of scalable error correction with cat qubits, where large noise bias and low phase-flip error rate enable the use of hardware-efficient outer error-correcting codes.
Dissipatively stabilized cat qubits provide a promising route toward fault-tolerant quantum computation, exhibiting exponential suppression of bit-flip errors with increasing phase-space separation of the logical states, while incurring only a linear increase in phase-flip errors. Existing implementations rely on engineered two-photon dissipation via nonlinear coupling to a lossy environment, an approach largely confined to superconducting platforms and limited by spurious decay channels and finite dissipation rates. Here, we propose a fundamentally different stabilization paradigm based on repeated interactions with an auxiliary two-level system mediated by a quadratic Hamiltonian, enabling dissipative stabilization without reservoir engineering. Our approach overcomes key limitations of existing schemes and is compatible with a wider class of experimental platforms. Furthermore, it preserves the noise bias and extends to squeezed cat qubits, rendering single-photon loss errors partially correctable.
The Kerr-cat qubit is a bosonic qubit in which multiphoton Schrödinger cat states are stabilized by applying a two-photon drive to an oscillator with a Kerr nonlinearity. The suppressed bit-flip rate with increasing cat size makes this qubit a promising candidate to implement quantum error correction codes tailored for noise-biased qubits. However, achieving strong light-matter interactions necessary for stabilizing and controlling this qubit has traditionally required strong microwave drives that heat the qubit and degrade its performance. In contrast, increasing the coupling to the drive port removes the need for strong drives at the expense of large Purcell decay. By integrating an effective band-block filter on chip, we overcome this trade-off and realize a Kerr-cat qubit in a scalable 2D superconducting circuit with high coherence. This filter provides 30 dB of isolation at the qubit frequency with negligible attenuation at the frequencies required for stabilization and readout. We experimentally demonstrate quantum nondemolition readout fidelity of 99.6% for a cat with eight photons. Also, to have high-fidelity universal control over this qubit, we combine fast Rabi oscillations with a new demonstration of the X ( π / 2 ) gate through phase modulation of the stabilization drive. Finally, the lifetime in this architecture is examined as a function of the cat size of up to ten photons in the oscillator, achieving a bit-flip time higher than 1 ms and only a linear increase in the phase-flip rate, in good agreement with the theoretical analysis of the circuit. Our qubit shows promise as a building block for fault-tolerant quantum processors with a small footprint. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Bistable systems are central to information processing, from classical bits to quantum qubits. Their robustness relies on mitigating switching errors, or bit flips. While a classical potential barrier suppresses thermal bit flips, quantum systems also suffer from phase-flip errors that degrade superpositions. "Cat" qubits leverage the principle of a potential barrier to exponentially suppress bit flips, but at the expense of a marginal increase in phase flips. This unique error bias simplifies quantum error correction, making cat qubits a promising platform for fault-tolerant quantum computation.This thesis first investigates the scaling of bit-flip errors in cat qubits as a function of their size. Using path integral techniques, we predict the switching rate in a single-mode bistable open quantum system. Drawing inspiration from systems satisfying detailed balance, we identify a set of non-idealities that nonetheless preserve the optimal scaling of ideal cat qubits.We then turn to the analysis of a superconducting circuit composed of Josephson junctions that implements a dissipative cat qubit. The nonlinear dissipation that is key to stabilizing a cat qubit originates from a parametrically activated coupling between the memory and a lossy mode. Our perturbative analysis uncovers parasitic drive-activated nonlinearities that amplify phase-flip errors as the cat-state stabilization strength increases, which ultimately alters the performance of a repetition code.Finally, we present the integration of the methods developed in this thesis into a complete simulation stack for superconducting circuits. We exemplify this integration with an ab initio study of a recently developed cascaded single-microwave-photon detector.
Quantum computing crucially relies on maintaining quantum coherence for the duration of a calculation. Bosonic quantum error correction protects this coherence by encoding qubits into superpositions of noise-resilient oscillator states. In the case of the Kerr-cat qubit (KCQ), these states derive their stability from being the quasi-degenerate ground states of an engineered Hamiltonian in a driven nonlinear oscillator. KCQs are experimentally compatible with on-chip architectures and high-fidelity operations, making them promising candidates for a scalable bosonic quantum processor. However, their bit-flip time must increase further to fully leverage these advantages. Here, we present direct evidence that the bit-flip time in a KCQ is limited by leakage out of the qubit manifold and experimentally mitigate this process. We coherently control the leakage population and measure it to be > 9%, twelve times higher than in the undriven system. We then cool this population back into the KCQ manifold with engineered dissipation, identify conditions under which this suppresses bit-flips, and demonstrate increased bit-flip times up to 3.6 milliseconds. By employing both Hamiltonian confinement and engineered dissipation, our experiment combines two paradigms for Schrödinger-cat qubit stabilization. Our results elucidate the interplay between these stabilization processes and indicate a path towards fully realizing the potential of these qubits for quantum error correction.
Dissipative cat-qubits are a promising architecture for quantum processors due to their built-in quantum error correction. By leveraging two-photon stabilization, they achieve an exponentially suppressed bit-flip error rate as the distance in phase-space between their basis states increases, incurring only a linear increase in phase-flip rate. This property substantially reduces the number of qubits required for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Here, we implement a squeezing deformation of the cat qubit basis states, further extending the bit-flip time while minimally affecting the phase-flip rate. We demonstrate a steep reduction in the bit-flip error rate with increasing mean photon number, characterized by a scaling exponent γ=4.3, rising by a factor of 74 per added photon. Specifically, we measure bit-flip times of 22 seconds for a phase-flip time of 1.3 μs in a squeezed cat qubit with an average photon number nˉ=4.1, a 160-fold improvement in bit-flip time compared to a standard cat. Moreover, we demonstrate a two-fold reduction in Z-gate infidelity, with an estimated phase-flip probability of εX=0.085 and a bit-flip probability of εZ=2.65⋅10−9 which confirms the gate bias-preserving property. This simple yet effective technique enhances cat qubit performances without requiring design modification, moving multi-cat architectures closer to fault-tolerant quantum computation.