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arXiv:2603.13837

Millimeter Wave Readout of a Superconducting Qubit

Akash V. Dixit, Zachary L. Parrott, Dennis Chunikhin, Bradley D. Hauer, Trevyn F. Q. Larson, John D. Teufel

quant-phSubmitted Mar 14, 2026• Announced Mar 17, 2026• 0 citations• Revised Oct 30, 2026 (v2)
v1 · Mar 14, 2026v2 · Oct 30, 2026
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Millimeter waves are emerging as an enabling technology for connecting and enhancing different quantum platforms such as Rydberg atoms, optomechanics, and superconducting qubits. In this work, we explore the interaction between millimeter wave photons and conventional transmon qubits, specifically for qubit readout. We study a circuit quantum electrodynamic (cQED) system consisting of a millimeter wave cavity at $ω_r = 2π\times 34.7$ GHz and a transmon qubit at $ω_q = 2π\times 3.1$ GHz coupled at rate $g = 2π\times 1.3$. With such a large detuning between cavity and qubit, $ω_r/ω_q > 10$, we are able to suppress drive induced unwanted resonant state transitions, enabling strong drives for qubit readout. We measure no resonant state transitions even when driving with more than $100$ photons and read out the qubit state with more than $100$ photons to achieve a measurement fidelity greater than $99\%$ without the aid of a quantum limited amplifier.

Journal reference
Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 180803 (2026)
DOI
10.1103/c84y-ggqs
Comments
5 pages, 4 figures in main text. 10 pages, 11 figures, 1 table in supplemental materials

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Millimeter waves are emerging as an enabling technology for connecting and enhancing different quantum platforms such as Rydberg atoms, optomechanics, and superconducting qubits. In this work, we explore the interaction between millimeter wave photons and conventional transmon qubits, specifically for qubit readout. We study a circuit quantum electrodynamic (cQED) system consisting of a millimeter wave cavity at ωr=2π×34.7ω_r = 2π\times 34.7ωr​=2π×34.7 GHz and a transmon qubit at ωq=2π×3.1ω_q = 2π\times 3.1ωq​=2π×3.1 GHz coupled at rate g=2π×1.3g = 2π\times 1.3g=2π×1.3. With such a large detuning between cavity and qubit, ωr/ωq>10ω_r/ω_q > 10ωr​/ωq​>10, we are able to suppress drive induced unwanted resonant state transitions, enabling strong drives for qubit readout. We measure no resonant state transitions even when driving with more than 100100100 photons and read out the qubit state with more than 100100100 photons to achieve a measurement fidelity greater than 99%99\%99% without the aid of a quantum limited amplifier.
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The millimeter wave (mm-wave) frequency band provides exciting prospects for quantum science and devices since many high-fidelity quantum emitters, including Rydberg atoms, molecules, and silicon vacancies, exhibit resonances near 100 GHz. High-Q resonators at these frequencies would give access to strong interactions between emitters and single photons, leading to rich and unexplored quantum phenomena at temperatures above 1 K. We report a 3D mm-wave cavity with a measured single-photon internal quality factor of 3×107 and mode volume of 0.14×λ3 at 98.2 GHz, sufficient to reach strong coupling in a Rydberg cavity quantum electrodynamics system. An in situ piezotunability of 18 MHz facilitates coupling to specific atomic transitions. Our unique, seamless, and optically accessible resonator design is enabled by the realization that intersections of 3D waveguides support tightly confined bound states below the waveguide cutoff frequency. Harnessing the features of our cavity design, we realize a hybrid mm-wave and optical cavity, designed for interconversion and entanglement of mm-wave and optical photons using Rydberg atoms.
Circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED), exemplified by a coupled system of a superconducting qubit and a microwave cavity, is a powerful framework for the quantum control and measurement of macroscopic quantum states in solid-state circuits. Quantum circuits based on superconducting qubits have emerged as one of the leading platforms in the pursuit of fault-tolerant quantum computing. Despite significant progress in extending qubit lifetimes, refining experimental protocols, and scaling up quantum processors, errors arising from the control and measurement of superconducting qubits continue to hinder the realization of a universal quantum computer. To investigate the error mechanisms for state-of-the-art qubits, we realize long-lived superconducting transmon qubits that exhibit fluctuating lifetimes, with an average of 0.2 ms and a maximum exceeding 0.4 ms. We then investigate their dominant error mechanism. By introducing novel time-resolved error measurements that are synchronized with the operation of the pulse tube cooler in a dilution refrigerator, we find that mechanical vibrations from the pulse tube induce nonequilibrium dynamics in highly coherent qubits, leading to their correlated bit-flip errors. Our findings not only deepen our understanding of qubit error mechanisms but also provide valuable insights into potential error-mitigation strategies for achieving fault tolerance by decoupling superconducting qubits from their mechanical environments. We also present a novel scheme for operating a cQED system in a regime where the cavity is largely displaced. We find that a qubit drive at the bare cavity frequency can effectively displace the cavity field while minimizing the cavity-drive-induced dephasing and the ac Stark shift. Furthermore, we demonstrate that standard cQED protocols, such as qubit control, readout, and cavity single-photon generation, remain compatible with largely displaced cavity fields, even beyond the critical photon number. These findings open new pathways for exploring cQED dynamics in large-photon-number regimes, including the study of nonlinear phenomena in microwave cavities, the saturation of two-level system baths for extending the coherence of microwave quantum states, and the acceleration of the dispersive readout. Finally, mechanical resonators have emerged as integral components in quantum computing for storing and transducing quantum information. Low-frequency mechanical resonators, with extremely low energy dissipation rates, are particularly interesting for extending the lifetimes of stored quantum information. However, integrating low-frequency mechanical resonators with qubits is challenging because their small energy gaps make coherent energy exchange and ground-state preparation difficult. In this thesis, we report the first steps towards the characterization of a hybrid quantum device, consisting of a Transmon qubit and a circuit optomechanical system, both coupled to a 3D microwave cavity.
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Superconducting qubits, realized by incorporating Josephson junctions into superconducting circuits, behave as artificial atoms with anharmonic energy spectra and can be precisely controlled and measured using microwave cavities within the framework of circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED). Since its emergence in the early 2000s, cQED has established superconducting qubits as leading candidates for scalable quantum devices and has enabled the exploration of hybrid quantum systems that integrate disparate physical platformsThis review surveys superconducting hybrid quantum electromechanical systems in which mechanical resonators are coupled to superconducting qubits, with a focus on two widely used qubit platforms: the transmon and the fluxonium. We provide an overview of the underlying coupling mechanisms arising from interactions through the phase and charge degrees of freedom of the qubit, and discuss how these mechanisms give rise to both longitudinal and transverse qubit-mechanical interactions. We further review extensions of electromechanical platforms to electro-optomechanical architectures, in which optical cavities are integrated to enable coherent interfacing between superconducting circuits and optical photons. This review aims to present a unified framework and perspective on qubit-mechanical and qubit-mechanical-optical hybrid systems in superconducting quantum technologies and applications related to sensors.