Ever since Peter Shor's ground-breaking discovery in 1994 of an algorithm capable of factoring large integers on a quantum-mechanical computer exponentially faster than using any known classical method, research on quantum computing has boomed. Quantum information – a unique mixture of computer science, physics and mathematics – has developed into a new branch of information theory. On the experimental side, physicists from many different disciplines including atomic, solid-state and low-temperature physics, as well as optics, are striving today towards a practical quantum computer. All the candidate quantum bit (qubit) technologies have one thing in common: They rely on the controlled time-evolution of a closed quantum system, a seemingly paradoxical task.\n\nIn this Thesis the temporal control of quantum systems is studied. The topics included can be divided into two according to the type of temporal evolution; geometrical or dynamical. Geometrical realization-independent methods for quantum computing are studied first. Then the study is extended into dynamical quantum computing and the so-called Josephson charge-qubit register is considered as a test bench. Finally, a spin-off application of the geometrical evolution of a Josephson junction system is studied, i.e. Cooper pair pumping. A novel Cooper pair pump, the Cooper pair "sluice", is introduced.\n\nThe work on quantum computing reported in this Thesis is theoretical while the Cooper pair "sluice" is studied both theoretically and experimentally. Numerical simulations, both sequential and parallel, are used extensively throughout the Thesis. The experiments were carried out under cryogenic mK conditions and the sample fabrication was done using e-beam nanolithography.\n\nBecause the execution time of a quantum algorithm is always limited by the inevitable process of decoherence, it is important to utilize any measure available for accelerating quantum computations. It is found that practical quantum algorithms could greatly benefit from classical computer-aided optimization. Moreover, it is found that even a modest demonstrator of a full quantum algorithm using Josephson charge qubits is just barely realizable within present-day coherence times. However, the experimental part of this Thesis shows clear evidence of the functioning of the "sluice". While the worldwide effort of improving the coherence properties of qubits is underway, the "sluice" could well find practical use, e.g., in metrology in the foreseeable future.
Ever since Peter Shor's ground-breaking discovery in 1994 of an algorithm capable of factoring large integers on a quantum-mechanical computer exponentially faster than using any known classical method, research on quantum computing has boomed. Quantum information – a unique mixture of computer science, physics and mathematics – has developed into a new branch of information theory. On the experimental side, physicists from many different disciplines including atomic, solid-state and low-temperature physics, as well as optics, are striving today towards a practical quantum computer. All the candidate quantum bit (qubit) technologies have one thing in common: They rely on the controlled time-evolution of a closed quantum system, a seemingly paradoxical task.\n\nIn this Thesis the temporal control of quantum systems is studied. The topics included can be divided into two according to the type of temporal evolution; geometrical or dynamical. Geometrical realization-independent methods for quantum computing are studied first. Then the study is extended into dynamical quantum computing and the so-called Josephson charge-qubit register is considered as a test bench. Finally, a spin-off application of the geometrical evolution of a Josephson junction system is studied, i.e. Cooper pair pumping. A novel Cooper pair pump, the Cooper pair "sluice", is introduced.\n\nThe work on quantum computing reported in this Thesis is theoretical while the Cooper pair "sluice" is studied both theoretically and experimentally. Numerical simulations, both sequential and parallel, are used extensively throughout the Thesis. The experiments were carried out under cryogenic mK conditions and the sample fabrication was done using e-beam nanolithography.\n\nBecause the execution time of a quantum algorithm is always limited by the inevitable process of decoherence, it is important to utilize any measure available for accelerating quantum computations. It is found that practical quantum algorithms could greatly benefit from classical computer-aided optimization. Moreover, it is found that even a modest demonstrator of a full quantum algorithm using Josephson charge qubits is just barely realizable within present-day coherence times. However, the experimental part of this Thesis shows clear evidence of the functioning of the "sluice". While the worldwide effort of improving the coherence properties of qubits is underway, the "sluice" could well find practical use, e.g., in metrology in the foreseeable future.
The concept of a quantum computer was invented in the beginning of the 1980s as a quantum generalization of the reversible classical computer. After discoveries in the middle of the 1990s of quantum algorithms, which wouldsolve some problems considered intractable for classical computers, the field of quantum computing has developed rapidly. A wide range of quantum systems are investigated for their possible ability to implement quantum algorithms in practice. The most promising solid state implementations are superconducting electrical circuits based on the Josephson effect, and the Coulomb blockade effect. Superconducting circuits are macroscopic quantum systems which can be fabricated using standard lithography technologies. Superconducting qubits - basic building blocks of a quantum computer - have been developed at several research laboratories, among others the MC2 here at Chalmers. This thesis presents a theoretical investigation of controllable coupling of superconducting qubits based on the single Cooper-pair box. Two coupling schemes are investigated in detail: current-controlled coupling via large Josephson junctions, and coupling via a superconducting stripline cavity. Both coupling designs are scalable and suitable for the charge regime of the single Cooper-pair box, as well as for the charge-phase regime where the qubit is better protected from environmental noise. Quantum gate protocols which are relevant for these physical couplings are discussed. The investigations show that, for both considered designs, the simplest two-qubit gate is the conditional phase-shift gate. This gate is universal for quantum computing, and it can create maximallyentangled qubit pairs in only one run. The investigation combines methods from electrical engineering, quantum mechanics and quantum computer science.
The last two decades have seen an enormous increase in the computational power of digital computers. This was due to the rapid technical development in manufacturing processes and controlling semiconducting structures on submicron scale. Concurrently, the electric circuits have encountered the first signs of the realm of quantum mechanics. Those effects may induce noise and thus they are typically considered harmful. However, the manipulation of the coherent quantum states might turn out be the basis of powerful computers – quantum computers. There, the computation is encoded into the unitary time evolution of a quantum mechanical state vector. Eventually, quantum mechanics could enable one, for example, to read secret electronic messages which are encrypted by the widely employed RSA cryptosystem – a task which is extremely laborious for the current digital computers. This thesis presents a theoretical study of the coherent manipulations of pure quantum states in a quantum register, that is, quantum algorithms. An implementation of a quantum algorithm involves the initialization of the input state and its manipulation with quantum gates followed by the measurements. The physical implementation of each gate requires that it is decomposed into low-level gates whose physical realizations are explicitly known. Here, the problem is examined from two directions. Firstly, the numerical optimization scheme for controlling time-evolution of a closed quantum system is discussed. This yields a method for implementing quantum gates acting on up to three quantum bits, qubits. The approach is independent of the physical realization of the quantum computer, but it is considered explicitly for a proposed inductively coupled Josephson charge qubit register. Secondly, the techniques of numerical matrix computation are utilized to find a general method for decomposing an arbitrary n-qubit gate into a sequence of elementary gates, which act on one or two qubits. The results of this thesis help to improve the implementation of quantum algorithms. The quantum circuit construction developed in the thesis is the first one to achieve the asymptotically minimal complexity in the number of elementary gates. In context of acceleration of quantum algorithms we present a gate-level study of Shor's algorithm and show how to accelerate the algorithm by merging several elementary gates into multiqubit gates. Finally, the requirements set by the resulting gate array are compared to the properties of superconducting qubits. This allows us to discuss the feasibility of the Josephson charge qubit register, for instance, as hardware for breaking the RSA cryptosystem.
Among the potential physical implementations of quantum bits (qubits) solid state devices appear most promising for large scale applications and integration in electronic circuits. Devices based on low-capacitance Josephson junctions exploit the coherence of the superconducting state, combined with the possibility to control individual charges by Coulomb blockade effects. The logical states in these systems differ by one Cooper-pair charge. Single- and two-bit operations can be performed by applying a sequence of gate voltages. The phase coherence time is sufficiently long to allow a series of these steps. If, in addition, the strength of the Josephson coupling is controlled (e.g. by currents in SQUID loops) the system is ideal for quantum computation. Recent experiments by Nakamura et al. show the feasibility of this approach. In addition to the manipulations of qubits the resulting quantum state has to be read out. This quantum measurement process can be accomplished by coupling a single-electron transistor (SET) capacitively to the qubit. We investigate the process by analyzing the time-evolution of the density matrix of the coupled system. The measurement process is characterized by three time scales: the dephasing time, which is fast when a dissipative current flows in the SET, a longer ‘measurement time’ needed to read out the signal, and a third, even longer ‘mixing time’, characterizing measurement induced transitions which destroy the information about the initial quantum state. The noise spectrum of the current in the SET displays these time scales and allows their direct observation.
Several physical realizations of quantum bits have been proposed. Of those, nano-electronic devices appear most suitable for large-scale integration and potential applications. We suggest to use low-capacitance Josephson junctions, exploiting the coherence of tunneling in the superconducting state combined with the possibility to control individual charges by Coulomb blockade effects (cond-mat/9706016,cond-mat/9808067). These systems constitute quantum bits, with logical states differing by one Cooper-pair charge. Single- and two-bit operations can be performed by applying a sequence of gate voltages. The phase coherence time is sufficiently long to allow a series of these steps. In addition to the manipulation of qubits the resulting quantum state has to be read out. This can be accomplished by coupling a single-electron transistor capacitively to the qubit (cond-mat/9801125). To describe this quantum measurement process we study the time evolution of the density matrix of the coupled system. Only when a transport voltage is turned on, the transistor destroys the phase coherence of the qubit; in this case within a short time. The measurement is accomplished after a longer time scale, when the signal resolves the different quantum states. At still longer times the measurement process itself destroys the information about the initial state. We present a suitable set of system parameters, which can be realized by present-day technology.
Accurate control of a quantum system is complicated to achieve partly due to the system being coupled to its surrounding environment. The coupling induces dissipation and decoherence not only destroying the coherent quantum state but making the application of control unpredictable. When the control results from manipulation of external fields, it is usually referred to as driving and its joint effect with decoherence constitutes an active field of study in reduced-density-operator theory. Recently, this field has been pushed forward by its necessity in simulating Cooper pair pumping where the geometric nature of quantum evolution allows for controlled transport of charge carriers in superconducting circuits. Such circuits themselves are under constant investigation as they grant access to fundamental quantum phenomena and facilitate promising applications such as those in quantum information processing.\nIn this dissertation, driven quantum systems under decoherence are investigated. Extensions and improvements to a recent master equation for nearly adiabatic driving are presented and analyzed. The emergent properties in quantum evolution are studied both analytically and numerically. Related to the findings, a general conservation law of operator current is derived and used to explain observed nonconservation in previous theoretical studies. The derived theory is applied to Cooper-pair pumping and shown to lead to important properties such as superadiabatic ground-state pumping. A recent pumping experiment is simulated and the breakdown point for ideal pumping is found with feasible physical parameters. A study of charge transport in the presence of flux noise is presented leading to detectable dissipative currents and the typical description of the device used for pumping is extended to include a nonvanishing loop inductance.\nA novel approach to implement control of quantum systems is proposed based on constructing a tunable coupling to an artificial environment using either a coplanar waveguide cavity or coupled quantum LC resonators. Tunability allowing for both efficient initialization and protected evolution is theoretically demonstrated. Finally, a general framework for quantum driving is constructed without the typical assumption of a classical driving force leading to peculiar results.\nThis dissertation presents original research on both modeling the control of open quantum systems as well as the realization of such control. The work simulates physical phenomena in superconducting circuits and makes predictions for future experiments. In addition, it introduces novel theoretical tools and approaches that advance the state of the art.
It was Richard Feynman who first proposed, in 1982, the far-reaching concept of \na ”quantum computer”—a device more powerful than classical computers. The idea \nof a quantum computer is to employ the fascinating and often counterintuitive \nlaws of quantum mechanics to process information. It is far from obvious that \nthe proposed concept of a quantum computer is more powerful than its classical \ncounterpart, it was only in 1994 when Peter Shor theoretically demonstrated the \nexistence of a quantum algorithm for factorizing integers into prime factors \nthat runs in polynomial time unlike its classical counterpart which works in \nsub-exponential time. The factorization of integers into prime factors is the \nbasis of asymmetric cryptography. These early theoretical results lunched an \nimmense interest of the scientific community. Already during ’90s, the first \nproposals for the physical implementation of quantum computation emerged. Ever \nsince, many experimental groups around the world pursued different physical \nimplementations of quantum bits (qubits). The first decade of the new century \nsaw a steady improvement in the control and decoherence time (the time over \nwhich the information carried by the qubit is lost) for various qubits by many \norders of magnitude. The natural next step in this context is to answer the \nquestion of how to scale the system up to include many qubits and thus build a \nquantum computer? One of the main parts of this thesis addresses exactly this \nquestion, namely the question of architecture and scalability of future quantum \ncomputer. \n \nAmong various different physical realizations of qubits, the idea of using \nelectron spins trapped in electrostatic semiconductor quantum dots as the \nbuilding blocks of a quantum computer (the so-called spin qubits), put forward \nby Daniel Loss and David DiVincenzo in 1997, triggered tremendous interest in \nscientific community. Nevertheless, the implementation of the original \nLoss-DiVincenzo proposal posed a considerable technical challenge. It used \nquantum tunneling between qubits to enable their communication with each other, \nand thus required that the qubits to be placed very close to each other. This \nrequirement not only leaves little \nspace for the placement of the vast amount of gates and wirings needed to define \nthe electrostatic quantum dots, but also makes it challenging to control the \nlocal magnetic field needed for single-qubit operations. For these reasons, no \nsystem with more than a couple of spin qubits has been \nsuccessfully implemented thus far. In the first part of this thesis, we leap \nover this long-standing problem with an entirely different strategy of using \nmetallic floating gates or ferromagnets to couple together qubits that are \nseparated over a long distance. Our scheme works for any type of \nspin qubits, including the qubits based on nitrogen-vacancy center (NV-center) \nin diamond and technologically very important silicon qubits. \n \nThe main topic of this thesis is related to quantum computer. Still, quite \nunexpectedly, some of the ideas we employed in order to tackle the problem of \nquantum computer scalability can be utilized in a completely different field of \nresearch, namely, in the field of magnetic field sensing. Qubit are not only a \nnecessary ingredient of quantum computer but they also provide a way to measure \nvery accurately magnetic fields. The magnetometer build upon the qubit based on \nNV-center, so-called NV-magnetometer, emerged in recent years as most sensitive \nmagnetic moment sensor. These magnetometers are able to detect about hundred \nnuclear spins within a minute of acquisition time. In the second part of this \nthesis, we propose an entirely novel experimental realization of \nNV-magnetometers which increases present NV-center sensitivities by four orders \nof magnitude at room temperature. This unprecedented amplification of \nsensitivity will render magnetometers capable of detecting individual nuclear \nspins. This amplification is achieved by introducing a ferromagnetic particle \nbetween the nuclear spin that needs to be detected and the NV-magnetometer. Our \nsetup, in contrast to existing schemes, is particularly advantageous because, \ndue to the large amplification of sensitivity, the nuclear spin need not lie \nwithin a few nanometers of the surface but rather can be detectable at a \ndistance of 30 nm. With these novelties, our scheme provides chemically \nsensitive spin detection under ambient conditions allowing nanoscale resolution \nof nuclear magnetic moments in biological systems—the holy grail of nuclear \nmagneticresonance. \n \nIn the last part of the thesis we focus our attention to a new direction in \nquantum computer implementation that deals with topological quantum computer \nintroduced by Alexei Kitaev in 1997; in this approach the idea is to use \nquasiparticles with ”fractional” statistics and to perform the single- and \ntwo-qubit gates by merely exchanging these quasiparticles. Additionally, \ninformation in this system is stored non-locally thus it mitigates the problem \nof decoherence caused by local noise from the environment. Majorana fermions are \none of the most well known examples of such excitations. We analyze transport \nsignatures of different topological states in one-dimensional systems, like \nMajorana fermions and fractionally charged states. We envision an Aharonov-Bohm \nsetup wherein conductance measurement provides a clear signature of presence of \nfractionally charged fermionic states, since oscillations with double period \nemerge in this case. Additionally, we propose a very simple setup that enables \nexistence of degenerate mid-gap states, so-called Tamm-Shockley states that are \ncharacterized by fractional charge and discuss possible ways of detecting these \nstates experimentally. \n