Superconducting qubits have achieved remarkable progress in gate fidelity and coherence, yet their typical nearest-neighbor connectivity presents constraints for implementing complex quantum circuits. Here, we introduce a cavity-mediated coupling architecture in which a shared cavity mode, accessed through tunable qubit–cavity couplers, enables dynamically reconfigurable interactions between non-adjacent qubits. By selectively activating the couplers, we demonstrate that high-fidelity iSWAP and CZ gates can be performed within 50 ns with simulated coherent error below 10−4, while residual ZZ interaction during idling remains below a few kilohertz. Extending to a four-qubit system, we also simulate gates between every qubit pair by selectively enabling the couplers with low qubit crosstalk. This approach provides a practical route toward enhanced interaction flexibility in superconducting quantum processors and may serve as a useful building block for devices that benefit from selective non-local coupling.
Superconducting qubits have achieved remarkable progress in gate fidelity and coherence, yet their typical nearest-neighbor connectivity presents constraints for implementing complex quantum circuits. Here, we introduce a cavity-mediated coupling architecture in which a shared cavity mode, accessed through tunable qubit–cavity couplers, enables dynamically reconfigurable interactions between non-adjacent qubits. By selectively activating the couplers, we demonstrate that high-fidelity iSWAP and CZ gates can be performed within 50 ns with simulated coherent error below 10−4, while residual ZZ interaction during idling remains below a few kilohertz. Extending to a four-qubit system, we also simulate gates between every qubit pair by selectively enabling the couplers with low qubit crosstalk. This approach provides a practical route toward enhanced interaction flexibility in superconducting quantum processors and may serve as a useful building block for devices that benefit from selective non-local coupling.
Superconducting qubits have achieved remarkable progress in gate fidelity and coherence, yet their typical nearest-neighbor connectivity presents constraints for implementing complex quantum circuits. Here, we introduce a cavity-mediated coupling architecture in which a shared cavity mode, accessed through tunable qubit-cavity couplers, enables dynamically reconfigurable interactions between non-adjacent qubits. By selectively activating the couplers, we demonstrate that high-fidelity iSWAP and CZ gates can be performed within 50 ns with simulated coherent error below 10−4, while residual ZZ interaction during idling remains below a few kilohertz. Extending to a four-qubit system, we also simulate gates between every qubit pair by selectively enabling the couplers with low qubit crosstalk. This approach provides a practical route toward enhanced interaction flexibility in superconducting quantum processors and may serve as a useful building block for devices that benefit from selective non-local coupling.
Tunable couplers have enabled two-qubit gate fidelities in superconducting quantum processors to approach 99.9%, yet simultaneously suppressing residual interactions and maintaining flexible qubit-frequency allocation remain central challenges for scaling. Here, we propose a double-resonator coupler (DRC) consisting of two resonators interconnected by a single Josephson junction and a capacitor. The hybridized resonator modes provide two mediated exchange paths whose interference controls the qubit-qubit interaction. The DRC enables complete cancellation of residual ZZ interaction for qubit-qubit detunings well outside the straddling regime, even in the absence of direct qubit-qubit coupling, thereby relaxing constraints on frequency allocation and qubit placement. Away from the idle point, the same circuit provides a strong ZZ interaction of approximately 70MHz, enabling a 20ns controlled-Z gate with simulated coherent infidelity below 10−5. These results establish the DRC as a flexible single-junction coupler architecture for high-fidelity superconducting quantum processors.
Tunable couplings are a central requirement for scalable quantum processing with superconducting quantum circuits. Practical quantum processors must dynamically reconfigure their interaction landscape to accommodate different quantum operations, including idle, single-qubit gates, two-qubit gates, readout, and reset, while maintaining high coherence and suppressing spurious couplings. While widely used tunable interaction approaches rely on single-mode mediation, they are often constrained by nearest-neighbor connectivity, limited on-off ratios, and stringent requirements on qubit frequency allocation. This thesis develops and studies novel strategies for tailoring tunable interactions by moving beyond single-mode mediation, spanning multimode engineered interactions and modeless interaction schemes ("many to no modes"), while accounting for realistic constraints in superconducting hardware. Using a microwave metamaterial waveguide realized by coupled resonator arrays, I demonstrate tunable dissipative interactions that allow on-demand, fast, and high switching-ratio photon emission from a transmon used as a multi-level quantum emitter. This capability is leveraged to achieve deterministic generation of multidimensional photonic cluster states, as well as unconditional reset and leakage reduction of frequency-tunable superconducting qubits. Complementary to these multimode dissipative tunable interactions, this thesis also introduces architectures that realize tunable interactions mediated by many coherent modes or by no mediating modes. I discuss a long-range interaction scheme between superconducting dual-rail qubits mediated by spatially extended eigenmodes of a coupled-resonator array bus. Finally, I propose and analyze a novel modeless coupling architecture based on a SQUID coupler which provides intrinsic cross-Kerr interactions, enabling fast, hybridization-free CZ gates for far-detuned pairs, and discuss its implications for miniaturization of superconducting quantum processors.
Future quantum information processors require tunable coupling architectures that can produce high-fidelity logical gates between two or more qubits. Parametric coupling is a powerful technique for generating tunable interactions between many qubits. Here, we present a highly flexible parametric coupling scheme with superconducting qubits that provides complete removal of residual Z Z coupling and the implementation of driven SWAP or SWAP-free controlled- Z ( C Z ) gates. Our fully integrated two-dimensional on-chip coupler design is only weakly flux tunable, cancels static linear coupling between the qubits, avoids internal coupler dynamics or excitations, and is extensible to multiqubit circuit-QED systems. Exploring gate fidelity versus gate duration allows us to maximize two-qubit gate fidelity, while providing insights into possible error sources for these gates. Randomized benchmarking over several hours reveals that the parametric SWAP C Z gate achieves an average fidelity of 99.44 ± 0.09 % in a gate duration of 70 ns and that a dispersively driven parametric SWAP-free C Z gate attains an average fidelity of 99.47 ± 0.07 % in only 30 ns. The fidelity remained above this value for over 8 h and peaked twice with a maximum of 99.67 ± 0.14 % . Overall, our parametric approach combines versatility, precision, speed, and high performance in one compact coupler design.
Quantum processors operated through long-range interaction mediated by a microwave resonator have been envisioned to allow for high connectivity. The ability to selectively operate qubits rely on the possibility to dynamically suppress the coupling between each qubit and the resonator, however, there always remains a residual coupling. In this article, we investigate the effect of high processor connectivity on average two-qubit gate fidelity in a cavity-based architecture with tunable coupling. Via a perturbative approach, we quantify the crosstalk errors from transverse residual couplings and show that they scale as n m 2 where n is the number of idle qubits and m is the ratio between the transverse residual and active couplings. Setting an error threshold E thr , we demonstrate that crosstalks restrict the hardware topology and prevent the full use of all-to-all connectivity. We predict that the maximum number of qubits allowed by E thr scales as n ∝ E thr / m 2 .
Qubit coherence and gate fidelity are typically considered the two most useful metrics for characterizing a quantum processor. An equally useful metric is interqubit connectivity as it minimizes gate count and allows implementing algorithms efficiently with reduced error. However, interqubit connectivity in superconducting processors tends to be limited to nearest neighbor due to practical constraints in typical planar realizations. Here, we introduce a superconducting architecture that uses a ring resonator as a multiqubit coupling element to provide beyond nearest-neighbor connectivity without compromising on coupling uniformity or introducing fabrication complexities. We theoretically analyze the interqubit coupling as a function of frequency for a pair of qubits placed at different positions along the ring resonator and show that for carefully chosen operating frequency and angular spacing between the qubits, the variation of coupling can be minimized. For an operating frequency between the first two resonances of the ring resonator and a ${30}^{\ensuremath{\circ}}$ angular spacing for qubits, we compute interqubit coupling for a device capable of supporting up to 12 qubits with each qubit connected to nine other qubits. Using four qubits positioned strategically in the ring-resonator coupler, we experimentally verify the theoretical prediction for all possible angular spacings between the two qubits and demonstrate good agreement. Just like the standard bus resonator coupler, the coupling in the ring-resonator coupler is mediated via virtual photons since the operating frequency is far away from the resonant modes of the ring coupler. This ensures that any small internal loss in the ring resonator does not introduce decoherence during the coupling operation. We also compute extensions of this idea involving larger ring resonators and a multiring system and show the possibility of highly connected networks with larger number of qubits. Apart from being plug and play for existing superconducting architectures, our concept is scalable, adaptable to other platforms and has the potential to significantly accelerate progress in quantum computing, annealing, simulations, and error correction.