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AIP conference proceedings

Measurement of Decoherence Time in a Flux Qubit

K. Harrabi, Fumiki Yoshihara, Yasunobu Nakamura, Jaw-Shen Tsai

Published Jan 1, 2006• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a measurement of the relaxation and the dephasing times in a flux qubit. In order to improve coherence of the qubit, two external parameters were optimized: the applied flux through the qubit loop and the bias current of the SQUID which serves as a readout device of the qubit state. At the optimal point the dephasing time measured with spin‐echo technique was twice longer than the energy relaxation time. By changing one of the two bias parameters while keeping the other at the optimal value, one can separate the contribution of the noise in each parameter to the decoherence of the qubit.

DOI
10.1063/1.2355011

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arXiv:1911.04635•Applied Physics Letters•Dec 23, 2019•43 citations
We present a measurement of the relaxation and the dephasing times in a flux qubit. In order to improve coherence of the qubit, two external parameters were optimized: the applied flux through the qubit loop and the bias current of the SQUID which serves as a readout device of the qubit state. At the optimal point the dephasing time measured with spin‐echo technique was twice longer than the energy relaxation time. By changing one of the two bias parameters while keeping the other at the optimal value, one can separate the contribution of the noise in each parameter to the decoherence of the qubit.
We report detailed measurements of the relaxation and dephasing time in a flux-qubit measured by a switching DC SQUID. We studied their dependence on the two important circuit bias parameters: the externally applied magnetic flux and the bias current through the SQUID in two samples. We demonstrate two complementary strategies to protect the qubit from these decoherence sources. One consists in biasing the qubit so that its resonance frequency is stationary with respect to the control parameters ({\it optimal point}) ; the second consists in {\it decoupling} the qubit from current noise by chosing a proper bias current through the SQUID. At the decoupled optimal point, we measured long spin-echo decay times of up to 4μs4 μs4μs.
In order to gain a better understanding of the origin of decoherence in superconducting flux qubits, we have measured the magnetic field dependence of the characteristic energy relaxation time (T(1)) and echo phase relaxation time (T(2)(echo)) near the optimal operating point of a flux qubit. We have measured T(2)(echo) by means of the phase cycling method. At the optimal point, we found the relation T(2)(echo) approximately 2T(1). This means that the echo decay time is limited by the energy relaxation (T(1) process). Moving away from the optimal point, we observe a linear increase of the phase relaxation rate (1/T(2)(echo)) with the applied external magnetic flux. This behavior can be well explained by the influence of magnetic flux noise with a 1/f spectrum on the qubit.
We have investigated decoherence in Josephson-junction flux qubits. Based on the measurements of decoherence at various bias conditions, we discriminate contributions of different noise sources. We present a Gaussian decay function extracted from the echo signal as evidence of dephasing due to 1/f flux noise whose spectral density is evaluated to be about (10(-6)Phi0)2/Hz at 1 Hz. We also demonstrate that, at an optimal bias condition where the noise sources are well decoupled, the coherence observed in the echo measurement is limited mainly by energy relaxation of the qubit.
We present a systematic study of the phase coherent dynamics of a superconducting three-Josephson-junction flux qubit. The qubit state is detected with the integrated-pulse method, which is a variant of the pulsed switching-dc-superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) method. In this scheme, the dc SQUID bias current pulse is applied via a capacitor instead of a resistor, giving rise to a narrow bandpass instead of a pure low-pass filter configuration of the electromagnetic environment. Measuring one and the same qubit with both setups allows a direct comparison. With the capacitive method about four times faster switching pulses and an increased visibility are achieved. Furthermore, the deliberate engineering of the electromagnetic environment, which minimizes the noise due to the bias circuit, is facilitated. Right at the degeneracy point, the qubit coherence is limited by energy relaxation. We find two main noise contributions. White noise limits the energy relaxation and contributes to the dephasing far from the degeneracy point. 1∕f1∕f1∕f noise is the dominant source of dephasing in the direct vicinity of the optimal point. The influence of 1∕f1∕f1∕f noise is also supported by nonrandom beatings in the Ramsey and spin echo decay traces. Numeric simulations of a coupled qubit-oscillator system indicate that these beatings are due to the resonant interaction of the qubit with at least one pointlike fluctuator, coupled especially strongly to the qubit.
This thesis examines sources of dissipation and dephasing in a dc SQUID phase qubit. Coupling of the qubit to the bias lines and lossy dielectrics causes the qubit to lose quantum information through a process known generally as decoherence. Using knowledge of the possible sources of decoherence, a dc SQUID phase qubit is designed with parameters that should have made it resistant to dissipation and dephasing from those sources. Device PB9 was a dc SQUID with one small area 0.23 (μm)2 Josephson junction with a critical current of 130 nA, which was meant to be the qubit junction, and a larger area 5 (μm)2 junction with a critical current of 8.6 μA, which acted as part of an inductive isolation network. The qubit junction was shunted by a 1.5 pF low-loss interdigitated capacitor. The dc current bias line had an on-chip LC filter with a cutoff frequency of 180 MHz. The other control lines were also designed to minimize coupling of dissipative elements to the qubit. According to a theoretical model of the dissipation and dephasing, the qubit was expected to have an energy relaxation T1 ≤ 8.4 μs and dephasing time Tø ∼ 1 μs. Because of the relatively high Josephson inductance of the qubit junction, the device did not act perform like a conventional isolated single-junction phase qubit. Instead, the resonant modes that I observed were the normal modes of the entire SQUID. At 20 mK and a frequency of 4.047 GHz, the maximum energy relaxation time of the device was found to be 350 ± 70 ns, despite the optimized design. Through a study of T1 versus applied flux, T1 was found to depend on the strength of the coupling of the microwave drive line to the qubit. When the line was more coupled, T1 was shorter. This was evidence that the microwave line was overcoupled to the qubit, and was limiting the lifetime of the excited state T1. Through a study of the spectroscopic coherence time T2* , which measured the effects of low-frequency inhomogeneous broadening and higher frequency dephasing from noise, I discovered that device PB9 has several sweet spots. In particular, the presence of a sweet spot with respect to critical current fluctuations allowed me to identify critical current noise as a major source of broadening and dephasing in the qubit. From the spectroscopy I estimated the 1/f critical current noise power density at 1 Hz was SI01 (1Hz) ≈ 10 (nA) 2/Hz and the 1/f flux noise power spectral density at 1 Hz was SΦ (1Hz) ≈ (110 μΦ 0)2/Hz. Both of these values were quite high, possibly due to switching of the device between measurements.
We report the experimental realization of a 3D capacitively shunt superconducting flux qubit with long coherence times. At the optimal flux bias point, the qubit demonstrates energy relaxation times in the range of 60–90 μs and a Hahn-echo coherence time of about 80 μs, which can be further improved by dynamical decoupling. Qubit energy relaxation can be attributed to quasiparticle tunneling and unwanted two-level-system defects, while qubit dephasing is caused by flux noise away from the optimal point. Our results show that 3D c-shunt flux qubits demonstrate improved performance over other types of flux qubits, which is advantageous for applications such as quantum magnetometry and spin sensing.