We propose a framework for the direct generation of flying cat-qubit states from vacuum using time-dependent two-photon drives in nonlinear bosonic systems. We study both Kerr-based and two-photon-dissipation-based generation. By engineering Kerr nonlinearity, two-photon driving, and dissipation, we demonstrate logical control of a cat qubit during its generation and emission, while its quantum information is simultaneously shared between the nonlinear system and the propagating output field. We further analyze the effects of photon loss and pure dephasing, showing that both the state generation and logical control remain robust under realistic noise conditions. These results provide a route toward programmable bosonic quantum networks and future propagating error-correctable encodings.
We propose a framework for the direct generation of flying cat-qubit states from vacuum using time-dependent two-photon drives in nonlinear bosonic systems. We study both Kerr-based and two-photon-dissipation-based generation. By engineering Kerr nonlinearity, two-photon driving, and dissipation, we demonstrate logical control of a cat qubit during its generation and emission, while its quantum information is simultaneously shared between the nonlinear system and the propagating output field. We further analyze the effects of photon loss and pure dephasing, showing that both the state generation and logical control remain robust under realistic noise conditions. These results provide a route toward programmable bosonic quantum networks and future propagating error-correctable encodings.
We present a systematic study of Schrödinger cat codes constructed from Kerr-type coherent states, including displaced Kerr coherent states and Barut--Girardello Kerr coherent states, each admitting two distinct families determined by the sign of the Kerr nonlinearity. By tuning the Kerr parameter and coherent-state amplitude, these states interpolate between su(2), su(1,1) coherent states, providing a unified and versatile foundation for this type of bosonic quantum error correction. Unlike standard two-component Schrödinger cat codes, where a single photon-loss event induces an uncorrectable bit-flip, the nonlinear phase-space structure of Kerr cat states enables simultaneous detection and correction of both photon-loss and dephasing errors within a unified recovery framework, with optimal recovery operations determined via convex optimization. We demonstrate that Kerr cat encodings significantly outperform conventional cat codes under combined loss and dephasing noise, and that judicious parameter optimization can suppress both error channels to a level that reduces the overhead of additional error correction layers. We further show that Kerr-deformed coherent-state manifolds under engineered two-photon driving emerge as effective steady states of driven-dissipative dynamics, with single-photon decoherence strongly suppressed and leakage outside the protected manifold appearing only as higher-order corrections in the deformation strength. Our extended formalism identifies generalized Kerr Schrödinger cat codes as promising candidates for fault-tolerant bosonic quantum computation in experimental platforms such as nonlinear photonics.
Cat-state qubits, a prominent class of bosonic encodings, offer a promising pathway toward hardware-efficient fault-tolerant quantum computing. In this manuscript, we propose an optimally robust control protocol for the cat-state qubits which are stabilized by engineering two-photon dissipation. By deriving an effective two-level description in the cat-state subspace and applying shortcut-to-adiabaticity via inverse engineering, we design a robust protocol to achieve fast and high-fidelity state transfer in the cat-state qubit. We analyze the sensitivity to systematic control errors and identify an optimal robustness condition that strongly suppresses errors induced by imperfections in the driving fields. Furthermore, we show that dissipative confinement efficiently suppresses leakage out of the cat-state subspace caused by the pure dephasing, highlighting an intrinsic advantage of dissipative-cat qubits. This work establishes a robust and leakage-suppressing framework for high-fidelity bosonic qubit control, offering a promising route toward scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Encoding quantum information onto bosonic systems is a promising route to quantum error correction. In a cat code, this encoding relies on the confinement of the system's dynamics onto the two-dimensional manifold spanned by Schrödinger cats of opposite parity. In dissipative cat qubits, an engineered dissipation scheme combining two-photon drive and loss has been used to autonomously stabilize this manifold, ensuring passive protection against bit-flip errors, regardless of their origin. In Kerr cat qubits, where highly-performing gates can be engineered, two-photon drive and Kerr nonlinearity cooperate to confine the system to a two-fold degenerate ground state manifold spanned by cats of opposite parity. Dissipative, Hamiltonian, and hybrid confinements have been investigated at resonance. Here, we propose a critical cat code, where both two-photon loss and Kerr nonlinearity are present, and the two-photon drive is allowed to be out of resonance. The performance of this code is assessed via the spectral theory of Liouvillians in all configurations, from the purely dissipative to the Kerr limit. We show that large detunings and small, but non-negligible, two-photon loss rates are fundamental to achieve optimal performance. We demonstrate that the competition between nonlinearity and detuning results in a first-order dissipative phase transition, leading to a squeezed vacuum steady state. To achieve the maximal suppression of the logical bit-flip rate requires initializing the system in the metastable state emerging from the first-order transition, and we detail a protocol to do so. Efficiently operating over a broad range of detuning values, the critical cat code is particularly resistant to random frequency shifts characterizing multiple-qubit operations, opening venues for the realization of reliable protocols for scalable and concatenated bosonic qubit architectures.
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.
Schrödinger cat states provide a hardware-efficient platform for bosonic quantum error correction by encoding logical information in protected manifolds of harmonic oscillators. While previous work has demonstrated the dissipative stabilization of multi-mode Schrödinger cat states as robust quantum memories, a framework for universal quantum computation has remained unavailable. Here we work towards this by introducing a universal gate set for dissipatively stabilized multi-mode cat qubits as a necessary resource for computation. Using a chain of Kerr non-linear oscillators coupled through engineered non-local dissipation and an effective low-dimensional description, we show how single-qubit control can be achieved through arbitrary rotation around the X-axis and π/2-rotation around the Z-axis. We further show how coupling two such stabilized arrays through just one oscillator on each respective array enables coherent entangling operations through implementation of the XXπ/2 gate. Numerical simulations demonstrate high-fidelity gate dynamics and entanglement generation under realistic parameters. Finally, we analyze the effects of induced and intrinsic photon loss, disorder, and the validity regime of the effective low-dimensional theory. Our results establish dissipatively stabilized multi-mode Schrödinger cat states as a potential architecture for universal bosonic quantum computation.
Schrödinger cat states, quantum superpositions of macroscopically distinct classical states, are an important resource for quantum communication, quantum metrology and quantum computation. Especially, cat states in a phase space protected against phase-flip errors can be used as a logical qubit. However, cat states, normally generated in three-dimensional cavities and/or strong multi-photon drives, are facing the challenges of scalability and controllability. Here, we present a strategy to generate and preserve cat states in a coplanar superconducting circuit by the fast modulation of Kerr nonlinearity. At the Kerr-free work point, our cat states are passively preserved due to the vanishing Kerr effect. We are able to prepare a 2-component cat state in our chip-based device with a fidelity reaching 89.1% under a 96 ns gate time. Our scheme shows an excellent route to constructing a chip-based bosonic quantum processor.