Qubit reset is crucial in quantum technology and is typically achieved by coupling the qubit to a dissipative environment. However, the achievable speed and fidelity are limited by qubit-environment entanglement. We use exact tensor-network simulations and a time-dependent variational approach to investigate these effects for transmon qubits with a time-dependent system-environment coupling. We show that they are due to the formation of a polaron state and how this can be reversed using a time-dependent coupling. Coupling protocols are identified which achieve reset with an excited-state population of
10−6 in
10 ns. A related paper [C. Ortega-Taberner, E. O'Neill and P. R. Eastham, arXiv:XXXX.XXXX] addresses the complementary case of control via a time-dependent Hamiltonian. Our work shows how the dynamics of the environment of an open quantum system can be controlled to design effective quantum processes in non-Markovian systems.
We demonstrate a transmon-qubit readout based on the nonlinear response to a drive of polaritonic meters in situ coupled to the qubit. Inside a three-dimensional readout cavity, we place a transmon molecule consisting of a transmon qubit and an ancilla mode interacting via nonperturbative cross-Kerr-coupling. The cavity couples strongly only to the ancilla mode, leading to hybridized lower and upper polaritonic meters. Both polaritons are anharmonic and dissipative, as they inherit a self-Kerr nonlinearity
U from the ancilla and effective decay $\ensuremath{\kappa}$ from the open cavity. Via the ancilla, the polariton meters also inherit the nonperturbative cross-Kerr-coupling to the qubit. This results in a high qubit-dependent displacement $2\ensuremath{\chi}>\ensuremath{\kappa},U$ that can be read out via the cavity without causing Purcell decay. Moreover, the polariton meters, being nonlinear resonators, present bistability, and bifurcation behavior when the probing power increases. In this work, we focus on the bifurcation at low power in the few-photon regime, called the mesoscopic regime, which is accessible when the self-Kerr and decay rates of the polariton meter are similar, $U\ensuremath{\sim}\ensuremath{\kappa}$. Capitalizing on a latching mechanism by bifurcation, the readout is sensitive to transmon-qubit relaxation error only in the first tens of nanoseconds. We thus report a single-shot fidelity of 98.6% while having an integration time of 500 ns and no requirement for an external quantum-limited amplifier.