Connecting two half-filled quantum dots to two superconducting leads induces a competition of bonds, with the dots forming either an interdot exchange bond or two individual Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) screening bonds with the leads. Defining a qubit using these singlet-parity bonding states provides dot-charge-noise protection, attributed to the chargeless nature of the screening quasiparticles, and magnetic noise protection, as the bonds guard against magnetic polarization. In this paper, we propose embedding a double-quantum-dot (DQD) Josephson junction in parallel with a transmon to enable circuit-quantum-electrodynamics (cQED) measurements and operation of a YSR-bond qubit. We demonstrate that, under realistic parameters, two-tone spectroscopy of the DQD can be performed, revealing a significant parameter regime suitable for qubit operation. Additionally, coherent manipulations of the bond states can be achieved through dot gates and single-shot readout is enabled by measurements of a capacitively coupled resonator. Finally, we analyze noise sources and estimate gate noise on couplings as the primary source of qubit decoherence. Since this qubit is protected against nuclear Overhauser fields and does not rely on spin-orbit interactions for operation, a broader range of material platforms becomes available compared to current Andreev spin qubits.
Connecting two half-filled quantum dots to two superconducting leads induces a competition of bonds, with the dots forming either an interdot exchange bond or two individual Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) screening bonds with the leads. Defining a qubit using these singlet-parity bonding states provides dot-charge-noise protection, attributed to the chargeless nature of the screening quasiparticles, and magnetic noise protection, as the bonds guard against magnetic polarization. In this paper, we propose embedding a double-quantum-dot (DQD) Josephson junction in parallel with a transmon to enable circuit-quantum-electrodynamics (cQED) measurements and operation of a YSR-bond qubit. We demonstrate that, under realistic parameters, two-tone spectroscopy of the DQD can be performed, revealing a significant parameter regime suitable for qubit operation. Additionally, coherent manipulations of the bond states can be achieved through dot gates and single-shot readout is enabled by measurements of a capacitively coupled resonator. Finally, we analyze noise sources and estimate gate noise on couplings as the primary source of qubit decoherence. Since this qubit is protected against nuclear Overhauser fields and does not rely on spin-orbit interactions for operation, a broader range of material platforms becomes available compared to current Andreev spin qubits.
Hybrid devices integrating quantum dots with Josephson junctions are gaining interest because they combine spin-based quantum computing with circuit quantum electrodynamics (circuit QED) methods. In particular, Andreev spin qubits have shown significant experimental progress including strong two-qubit coupling, and are predicted to exhibit all-to-all connectivity. Here we propose superconducting singlet-triplet (SST) qubits that rely on parallel-aligned double quantum dots in Josephson junctions. While Andreev spin qubits require spin-orbit interaction to unlock the spin degree-of-freedom, SST qubits do not require spin-orbit interaction, making the advantages of hybrid devices available to a wider range of materials. Similar to Andreev spin qubits, the qubit states couple to the superconducting phase across the junction, which allows for control and readout using circuit QED, and supports all-to-all connectivity. Only N flux lines are required to perform any single- and two-qubit gate among N qubits, and thus the overhead of control lines is small. Finally, linear protection from charge or flux noise makes these qubits interesting candidates for a future quantum processor.
Semiconductor quantum dots in which electrons or holes are isolated via electrostatic potentials generated by surface gates are promising building blocks for semiconductor-based quantum technology.Here, we investigate double-quantum-dot (DQD) charge qubits in GaAs capacitively coupled to highimpedance superconducting quantum interference device array and Josephson-junction array resonators.We tune the strength of the electric-dipole interaction between the qubit and the resonator in situ using surface gates.We characterize the qubit-resonator coupling strength, the qubit decoherence, and the detuning noise affecting the charge qubit for different electrostatic DQD configurations.We find all quantities to be systematically tunable over more than one order of magnitude, resulting in reproducible decoherence rates Γ 2 =2π < 5 MHz in the limit of high interdot capacitance.In the opposite limit, by reducing the interdot capacitance, we increase the DQD electric-dipole strength and, therefore, its coupling to the resonator.Employing a Josephson-junction array resonator with an impedance of approximately 4 kΩ and a resonance frequency of ω r =2π ∼ 5.6 GHz, we observe a coupling strength of g=2π ∼ 630 MHz, demonstrating the possibility to operate electrons hosted in a semiconductor DQD in the ultrastrong-coupling regime (USC).The presented results are essential for further increasing the coherence of quantum-dot-based qubits and investigating USC physics in semiconducting QDs.
Bound states in quantum dots coupled to superconductors can be in a coherent superposition of states with different electron number but with the same fermion parity. Electrostatic gating can tune this superposition to a sweet spot, where the quantum dot has the same mean electric charge independent of its electron-number parity. Here, we propose to encode quantum information in the local fermion parity of two tunnel-coupled quantum dots embedded in a Josephson junction. At the sweet spot, the qubit states have zero charge dipole moment. This protects the qubit from dephasing due to charge noise acting on the potential of each dot, as well as fluctuations of the (weak) interdot tunneling. At weak interdot tunneling, relaxation is suppressed because of disjoint qubit states. However, for strong interdot tunneling the system is protected against noise affecting each quantum dot separately (energy-level noise, dot-superconductor tunneling fluctuations, and hyperfine interactions). Finally, we describe initialization and readout as well as single-qubit and two-qubit gates by pulsing gate voltages. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Minimal Kitaev chains composed of two semiconducting quantum dots coupled via a superconductor have emerged as a promising platform to realize and study Majorana bound states (MBSs), which appear for fine-tuned configurations. We propose a hybrid qubit based on a Josephson junction between two such double quantum dots (DQDs) embedded in a superconducting qubit geometry. The qubit makes use of the $4\ensuremath{\pi}$-Josephson effect in the Kitaev junction to create a subspace based on the even/odd fermionic parities of the two DQD arrays hosting MBSs. Deep in the transmon regime, we demonstrate that by performing circuit QED spectroscopy on such a hybrid Kitaev-transmon ``Kitmon'' qubit, one could observe distinct MBS features in perfect agreement with precise analytical predictions in terms of DQD parameters only. This agreement allows us to extract the Majorana polarization in the junction from the microwave response.
We investigate the superconducting Anderson impurity model for interacting quantum dot Josephson junctions with spin-orbit coupling and a term accounting for tunnelling through higher-energy orbitals. These elements establish the conditions required for spin polarization in the absence of external magnetic field at finite superconducting phase bias. This Hamiltonian has been previously used to model the Andreev spin qubit, where quantum information is encoded in spinful odd-parity subgap states. Here we instead analyse the even-parity sector, i.e., the Andreev pair qubit based on Andreev bound states (ABS). The model is solved using the zero-bandwidth approximation and the numerical renormalization group, with further insight from variational calculations. Electron-electron interaction admixes single-occupancy Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) components into the ABS states, thereby strongly enhancing spin transitions in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. The ABS states can thus become sensitive to local magnetic field fluctuations, which has implications for decoherence in Andreev pair qubits. For strong interaction U U , especially in the cross-over region between the ABS and YSR regimes for U \sim 2\Delta U ∼ 2 Δ , charge, spin, and inductive transitions can all become strong, offering avenues for spin control and quantum transduction.
This thesis investigates hybrid circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) as a versatile platform that unites superconducting resonators with semiconductor quantum dots. The central motivation is to harness strong light-matter coupling at the single-photon level, which enables coherent photon-qubit interactions and paves the way for quantum technologies in computation, communication, and sensing. The first part of this work combines hybrid cQED with holes in planar Ge/SiGe, a material system that has only recently become accessible for quantum devices. Planar Ge offers unique advantages for this purpose and has attracted considerable attention in the context of quantum computing. In contrast, its potential for hybrid cQED has remained largely unexplored, making the present work one of the first demonstrations of strong light-matter interaction in this platform. Within this framework, we demonstrate strong charge-photon coupling in planar Ge by observing vacuum Rabi splitting between a hole charge qubit based on a double quantum dot (DQD) and a microwave resonator. We employ a frequency-tunable high-impedance resonator to perform qubit spectroscopy, enabling systematic exploration of coupling regimes and confirming device controllability. In addition, we use this setup to carry out excited-state spectroscopy of strongly correlated states in the DQD, revealing the formation of Wigner molecules and illustrating how the hybrid architecture can be harnessed to access many-body physics. While these experiments in Ge demonstrate how strong coupling can be harnessed to explore qubit physics and correlated states, they also exemplify the wider potential of hybrid cQED. A particularly pressing application is in quantum optics, where efficient single-photon detectors are still lacking in the microwave regime. Such detectors are essential for enabling experiments in quantum communication and microwave quantum optics. In the second part of this thesis, we address this challenge by realizing a photodetector based on a GaAs DQD coupled to a superconducting resonator. The detector operates via photon-to-charge conversion and achieves efficiencies approaching unity. Strong coupling plays a central role by ensuring that incoming photons are absorbed before being lost to the environment, which is key to the high performance of the detector. We further exploit the frequency tunability of the resonator to investigate device performance and identify the parameters that optimize detection efficiency. The broader impact of this work lies in advancing quantum technologies that rely on coherent microwave photons. Applications include spin qubit readout, long-distance photon-mediated coupling, quantum communication, and microwave quantum optics. Looking forward, planar Ge is identified as a highly competitive platform for hybrid cQED. Future directions include the development of single-photon sources, quantum- limited detectors, and analog quantum simulators based on engineered resonator-qubit arrays.