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Applied Sciences

Galvanic Phase Coupling of Superconducting Flux Qubits

Mun Dae Kim

Published Nov 29, 2021• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We investigate the galvanic coupling schemes of superconducting flux qubits. From the fundamental boundary conditions, we obtain the effective potential of the coupled system of two or three flux qubits to provide the exact Lagrangian of the system. While usually the two-qubit gate has been investigated approximately, in this study we derive the exact inductive coupling strength between two flux qubits coupled directly and coupled through a connecting central loop. We observe that the inductive coupling strength needs to be included exactly to satisfy the criteria of fault-tolerant quantum computing.

DOI
10.3390/app112311309

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We investigate the galvanic coupling schemes of superconducting flux qubits. From the fundamental boundary conditions, we obtain the effective potential of the coupled system of two or three flux qubits to provide the exact Lagrangian of the system. While usually the two-qubit gate has been investigated approximately, in this study we derive the exact inductive coupling strength between two flux qubits coupled directly and coupled through a connecting central loop. We observe that the inductive coupling strength needs to be included exactly to satisfy the criteria of fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Galvanic coupling of small-area (three-junction) flux qubits, using shared large Josephson junctions, has been shown to yield appreciable interaction strengths in a flexible design, which does not compromise the junctions' intrinsic good coherence properties. For an introduction, I recapitulate an elementary derivation of the coupling strength, which is subsequently generalized to the case of tunable coupling for a current-biased shared junction. While the ability to vary coupling constants by, say, 20% would be useful in experiments, sign-tunability (implying switchability) is highly preferable for several quantum-computing paradigms. This note sketches two ideas: a "crossbar" design with competing ferro- and antiferromagnetic current-biased tunable couplings, and a "mediated" one involving an extra loop between the qubits. The latter is a variation on proposals for tunable capacitive coupling of charge qubits, and tunable inductive coupling of large-area flux qubits.
We propose a scheme for tunable coupling of phase-coupled flux qubits. The phase-coupling scheme can provide a strong coupling strength of the order of Josephson coupling energy of Josephson junctions in the connecting loop, while the previously studied inductive coupling scheme cannot provide due to small mutual inductance and induced currents. We show that, in order to control the coupling, we need two dc SQUID's in the connecting loop and the control fluxes threading the dc SQUID's must be in opposite directions. The coupling strength is analytically calculated as a function of the control flux at the coresonance point.
A central problem for implementing efficient quantum computing is how to realize fast operations (both one- and two-bit ones). However, this is difficult to achieve for a collection of qubits, especially for those separated far away, because the interbit coupling is usually much weaker than the intrabit coupling. Here we present an experimentally feasible method to effectively couple two flux qubits via a common inductance and treat both single and coupled flux qubits with more realistic models, which include the loop inductance. The main advantage of our proposal is that a strong interbit coupling can be achieved using a small inductance, so that two-bit as fast as one-bit operations can be easily realized. We also show the flux dependence of the transitions between states for the coupled flux qubits.
The three-junction flux qubit (quantum bit) consists of three Josephson junctions connected in series on a superconducting loop. We present a numerical treatment of this device for the general case in which the ratio ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{Q}$ of the geometrical inductance of the loop to the kinetic inductance of the Josephson junctions is not necessarily negligible. Relatively large geometric inductances allow the flux through each qubit to be controlled independently with on-chip bias lines, an essential consideration for scalability. We derive the three-dimensional potential in terms of the macroscopic degrees of freedom, and include the possible effects of asymmetry among the junctions and of stray capacitance associated with them. To find solutions of the Hamiltonian, we use basis functions consisting of the product of two plane wave states and a harmonic oscillator eigenfunction to compute the energy levels and eigenfunctions of the qubit numerically. We present calculated energy levels for the relevant range of ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{Q}$. As ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{Q}$ is increased beyond 0.50.50.5, the tunnel splitting between the ground and first excited states decreases rapidly, and the device becomes progressively less useful as a qubit.
We have realized controllable coupling between two three-junction flux qubits by inserting an additional coupler loop between them, containing three Josephson junctions. Two of these are shared with the qubit loops, providing strong qubit-coupler interaction. The third junction gives the coupler a nontrivial current-flux relation; its derivative (i.e., the susceptibility) determines the coupling strength J, which thus is tunable in situ via the coupler's flux bias. In the qubit regime, J was varied from approximately 45 (antiferromagnetic) to approximately -55 mK (ferromagnetic); in particular, J vanishes for an intermediate coupler bias. Measurements on a second sample illuminate the relation between two-qubit tunable coupling and three-qubit behavior.