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arXiv:2507.09715

Intrinsic Multi-Mode Interference for Passive Suppression of Purcell Decay in Superconducting Circuits

Mustafa S. Bakr, Mohammed Alghadeer, Simon Pettersson Fors, Simone D Fasciati, Shuxiang Cao, Mahajan, Atharv, S. Amari, Anton Frisk Kockum, Peter Leek

Published Jul 13, 2025• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Decoherence due to radiative decay remains an important consideration in scaling superconducting quantum processors. We introduce a passive, interference-based methodology for suppressing radiative decay using only the intrinsic multi-mode structured environment of superconducting circuits. By taking into account the full electromagnetic mode-mode couplings within the device, we derive analytic conditions that enable destructive interference. These conditions are realized by introducing controlled geometric asymmetries -- such as localized perturbations to the transmon capacitor -- which increase mode hybridization and activate interference between multiple decay pathways. We validate this methodology using perturbation theory, full-wave electromagnetic simulations, and experimental measurements of a symmetry-broken transmon qubit with improved coherence times.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2507.09715

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Decoherence due to radiative decay remains an important consideration in scaling superconducting quantum processors. We introduce a passive, interference-based methodology for suppressing radiative decay using only the intrinsic multi-mode structured environment of superconducting circuits. By taking into account the full electromagnetic mode-mode couplings within the device, we derive analytic conditions that enable destructive interference. These conditions are realized by introducing controlled geometric asymmetries -- such as localized perturbations to the transmon capacitor -- which increase mode hybridization and activate interference between multiple decay pathways. We validate this methodology using perturbation theory, full-wave electromagnetic simulations, and experimental measurements of a symmetry-broken transmon qubit with improved coherence times.
We develop an approach to understanding intrinsic mechanisms that cause the T1{T}_{1}T1​-decay rate of a multilevel superconducting qubit to depend on the photonic population of a coupled, detuned cavity. Our method yields simple analytic expressions for both the coherently driven or thermally excited cases, which are in good agreement with full master equation numerics, and also facilitates direct physical intuition. It also predicts several interesting phenomena. In particular, we find that in a wide range of settings, the cavity-qubit detuning controls whether a nonzero photonic population increases or decreases qubit Purcell decay. Our method combines insights from a Keldysh treatment of the system, and Lindblad perturbation theory.
Superconducting circuits are a powerful platform for studying and controlling the interaction between light and matter at the quantum level. In these systems, superconducting qubits act as artificial atoms (with matter-like degrees of freedom), whereas microwave resonators play the role of oscillators hosting photons (with photonic-like degrees of freedom). A major advantage of this platform is the ability to tailor the electromagnetic environment to which the qubits are coupled. This degree of control makes it possible to realize well-known quantum optics models, like the Jaynes-Cummings model, as well as more complex systems, like quantum electrodynamics close to a bandgap. In this thesis, we engineer structured electromagnetic environments and couple superconducting qubits to them to experimentally study their interaction. By coupling multiple microwave resonators together, we create a metamaterial. When an atom interacts with the metamaterial, an atom-photon bound state emerges. We observe the dynamics of the creation and dissolution of the atom-photon bound state, as well as the spectral content of its photonic component, for the first time to our knowledge.Our metamaterial is intrinsically nonlinear because each resonator is formed by an array of Josephson junctions to serve as an inductor. When the system is pumped, its phase diagram exhibits multimode dissipative phase transitions with timescales on the order of hundred seconds. There is ongoing theoretical debate about whether such phase transitions can occur in one-dimensional systems, a question we address and resolve in this work.Furthermore, we engineer qubit decay using two different approaches. In the first one, we engineer the decay of two coupled atoms to two waveguides by using a symmetric–antisymmetric coupling configuration. This approach enables selective coupling to bright and dark states of the system. In the second one, we suppress the Purcell decay of a qubit using a compact lumped-element Purcell filter. In addition, we characterize the Purcell decay by employing an auxiliary superconducting qubit as a sensitive power detector directly coupled to the feedline waveguide used for the qubit readout.In summary, this thesis presents three different methods for controlling light–matter interactions in structured quantum systems, including decay suppression with both Purcell filters and symmetry-selective couplings. The thesis also introduces new experimental techniques for probing atom-photon bound states and provides direct evidence of collective phenomena in driven-dissipative quantum metamaterials.
In superconducting qubits, suppression of spontaneous emission is essential to achieve fast dispersive measurement and reset without sacrificing qubit lifetime. We show that resonator-mediated decay of the qubit mode to the feedline can be suppressed using destructive interference, where the readout resonator is coupled to the feedline at two points. This ``interferometric Purcell filter'' does not require dedicated filter components or impedance mismatch in the feedline, making it suitable for applications such as all-pass readout. We design and fabricate a device with the proposed scheme and demonstrate suppression of resonator-mediated decay that exceeds 2 orders of magnitude over a bandwidth of 400MHz400\phantom{\rule{0.1em}{0ex}}\mathrm{M}\mathrm{Hz}400MHz for a resonator linewidth of 13.8 MHz.
Efficient qubit reset and leakage reduction are essential for scalable superconducting quantum computing, particularly in the context of quantum error correction. However, such operations often require additional on-chip components. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a hardware-efficient approach to qubit reset and readout using a multi-mode Purcell filter in a superconducting quantum circuit. We exploit the inherent multi-mode structure of a coplanar waveguide resonator, using its fundamental and second-order modes for qubit reset and readout, respectively, thereby avoiding additional components. Implemented in a flip-chip architecture, our device achieves unconditional reset with residual excitation below 1\% in 220 ns, and a leakage reduction unit that selectively resets the second excited state within 62 ns with a residual ∣f⟩|f\rangle∣f⟩ population of 6.1\%, accounting for the readout error. Despite the qubits being directly coupled to the filter in our configuration, the measured relaxation times are not degraded owing to intrinsic Purcell protection provided by an auxiliary mode. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental trial that exploits different-order modes of a microwave resonator for distinct qubit operations, representing a new direction toward scalable, hardware-efficient quantum processor design.
Fault-tolerant superconducting quantum processors are limited by decoherence, limited connectivity, and the wiring burden at cryogenic temperatures. This review surveys superconducting “metamaterials”: circuits built from many repeating, deeply subwavelength building blocks (unit cells) that tailor dispersion, impedance, and bandgaps. By shaping the electromagnetic (and sometimes acoustic) environment of a qubit, these networks can suppress or enhance radiative decay and frequency shifts (Purcell and Lamb effects) and provide compact multimode structures for multiplexed control and photon-mediated coupling. We emphasize the practical trade-offs—added dielectric participation, fabrication disorder, and leakage through spurious chip/package modes—and the measurements needed to quantify them. The review summarizes design and tuning approaches (including Josephson/Superconducting Quantum Interference Device implementations), materials and fabrication limits, and mode-resolved benchmarks, and it highlights emerging directions such as topological lattices and engineered reservoirs while clearly separating demonstrations from proposals.
Superconducting qubits are among the most promising platforms for building a quantum computer. However, individual qubit coherence times are not far past the scalability threshold for quantum error correction, meaning that millions of physical devices would be required to construct a useful quantum computer. Consequently, further increases in coherence time are very desirable. In this Letter, we blueprint a simple circuit consisting of two transmon qubits and two additional lossy qubits or resonators, which is passively protected against all single-qubit quantum error channels through a combination of continuous driving and engineered dissipation. Photon losses are rapidly corrected through two-photon drive fields implemented with driven superconducting quantum interference device couplings, and dephasing from random potential fluctuations is heavily suppressed by the drive fields used to implement the multiqubit Hamiltonian. Comparing our theoretical model to published noise estimates from recent experiments on flux and transmon qubits, we find that logical state coherence could be improved by a factor of 40 or more compared to the individual qubit T_{1} and T_{2} using this technique. We thus demonstrate that there is substantial headroom for improving the coherence of modern superconducting qubits with a fairly modest increase in device complexity.