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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Superposition of two mesoscopically distinct quantum states: Coupling a Cooper-pair box to a large superconducting island

Florian Marquardt, Christoph Bruder

Published Jan 11, 2001• 78 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We consider a system of two superconducting islands, each of which is coupled to a bulk superconductor via Josephson tunneling. One of the islands represents a ``Cooper-pair box,'' i.e., it is an effective two-level system. The other island has a smaller charging energy and approximates a harmonic oscillator. A capacitive interaction between the islands results in a dependence of the oscillator frequency on the quantum state of the box. Placing the latter in a coherent superposition of its eigenstates and exciting coherent oscillations in the large island will lead to a phase shift of these oscillations depending on the box quantum state, thereby producing a coherent superposition of two ``mesoscopically distinct'' quantum states in the large island.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.63.054514

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We consider a system of two superconducting islands, each of which is coupled to a bulk superconductor via Josephson tunneling. One of the islands represents a Cooper-pair box,'' i.e., it is an effective two-level system. The other island has a smaller charging energy and approximates a harmonic oscillator. A capacitive interaction between the islands results in a dependence of the oscillator frequency on the quantum state of the box. Placing the latter in a coherent superposition of its eigenstates and exciting coherent oscillations in the large island will lead to a phase shift of these oscillations depending on the box quantum state, thereby producing a coherent superposition of two mesoscopically distinct'' quantum states in the large island.
We consider a system of two superconducting islands, each of which is coupled to a bulk superconductor via Josephson tunneling. One of the islands represents a "Cooper-pair box", i.e. it is an effective two-level system. The other island has a smaller charging energy and approximates a harmonic oscillator. A capacitive interaction between the islands results in a dependence of the oscillator frequency on the quantum state of the box. Placing the latter in a coherent superposition of its eigenstates and exciting coherent oscillations in the large island will lead to a phase-shift of these oscillations depending on the box quantum state, thereby producing a coherent superposition of two "mesoscopically distinct" quantum states in the large island.
This thesis presents measurements of quantum coherence in a single Cooper pair box, where quantum oscillations of charge between a reservoir and a small superconducting island have been observed. The single Cooper pair box (SCB) consists of a small metallic island which is connected to a reservoir via a tunnel junction. In the superconducting state, Cooper pairs are free to tunnel to and from the island, whose potential can be controlled by a gate voltage. A graded gap method was used to prevent quasiparticles from tunneling onto the island. For this purpose, a magnetic field suppressed the superconducting gap in the SCB leads more than in the island. This created an additional energy barrier for quasiparticles to tunnel to the island, making the gate voltage modulation periodic in Cooper pair charge. For a limited range of gate voltage, the SCB was found to behave as a model two-level quantum mechanical system. A non-adiabatic change in the induced island charge was used to bring two charge states into resonance. The resulting time evolution showed clear charge oscillations between the ground and excited state, with a frequency given by the energy level separation divided by Planck's constant. These oscillations had a longest coherence time of T2=9 ns at a point where the pure charge states are degenerate. The coherence time at this point was found to be limited by the relaxation rate, ?1. Away from this point, the coherence time was limited by the dephasing rate, ??. Away from the charge degeneracy, the dependence of T2 on gate charge suggested that low frequency fluctuators were the main source of dephasing. The charge of the Cooper pair box was measured by coupling the SCB capacitively to a radio frequency single electron transistor (RF-SET). The RF-SET was used as an electrometer by measuring the amount of reflection from a resonant microwave circuit in which a single electron transistor (SET) was embedded. A best charge sensitivity of 2.3·10-6 e/sqrt(Hz) and a 7 MHz bandwidth was reached in an improved setup. Another part of this thesis concerns an investigation of electrical filters for use in single electronics experiments. The characteristics of seven different types of cryogenic filters were evaluated.
Abstract A nanometre-scale superconducting electrode connected to a reservoir via a Josephson junction constitutes an artificial two-level electronic system: a single-Cooper-pair box. The two levels consist of charge states (differing by 2e, where e is the electronic charge) that are coupled by tunnelling of Cooper pairs through the junction. Although the two-level system is macroscopic, containing a large number of electrons, the two charge states can be coherently superposed1, 2, 3, 4. The Cooper-pair box has therefore been suggested5, 6, 7 as a candidate for a quantum bit or ‘qubit’—the basic component of a quantum computer. Here we report the observation of quantum oscillations in a single-Cooper-pair box. By applying a short voltage pulse via a gate electrode, we can control the coherent quantum state evolution: the pulse modifies the energies of the two charge states non-adiabatically, bringing them into resonance. The resulting state—a superposition of the two charge states—is detected by a tunnelling current through a probe junction. Our results demonstrate electrical coherent control of a qubit in a solid-state electronic device.
In this paper, we consider a system consisting of two capacitively coupled superconducting islands via Josephson junctions. We show that it can be reduced to two coupling harmonic oscillators under certain conditions, and can be solved exactly in terms of a displacing transformation, a beam-splitter-like transformation, and a squeezing transformation. It is found that the system evolves by a rotated-squeezed-coherent state when the system is initially in a coherent state. Quantum dynamics of the Cooper pairs in the two superconducting islands are investigated. It is shown that the number of the Cooper pairs in the two islands evolves periodically.
In this paper, we consider a system consisting of two capacitively coupled superconducting islands via Josephson junctions. We show that it can be reduced to two coupling harmonic oscillators under certain conditions, and solved exactly in terms of a displacing transformation, a beam-splitter-like transformation, and a squeezing transformation. It is found that the system evolves by a rotated-squeezed-coherent state when the system is initially in a coherent state. Quantum dynamics of the Cooper pairs in the two superconducting islands is investigated. It is shown that the number of the Cooper pairs in the two islands evolves periodically.
In a system where two small-area (100 nm x 100 nm) superconducting tunnel junctions are connected in series, the Josephson effect which tends to impose the phase competes with the charging effects in the central electrode (the of the device) which tend to set the charge of the island. By applying a voltage on an electrode capacitively coupled to the island (the electrode) one can arbitrate this competition in favour of either effect. This is can be seen in particular on the supercurrent which can flow through the junctions : it is modulated periodically by the gate voltage (hence the name of given to the system). This modulation shows sharp peaks when two charge states of the island are degenerate with respect to the electrostatic energy. The system is then in a state which has no classical description : it is in a coherent superposition of states. In this thesis we demonstrate experimentally the behaviour of this transistor and we analyse the theoretical and practical problems which can prevent the observation of the coherent superposition of states through the modulation of the supercurrent. In particular we show that the parity of the electron number in the island must be rigorously controlled and that the impedance connected to the circuit plays a crucial role in setting the magnitude of the measured supercurrent.