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arXiv:cond-mat/0701078 · Physical Review A

Protocols for optimal readout of qubits using a continuous quantum nondemolition measurement

Jay Gambetta, William Allan Braff, Andreas J. Wallraff, S. M. Girvin, Robert J. Schoelkopf

Published Jul 24, 2007• 167 citations
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Abstract

We study how the spontaneous relaxation of a qubit affects a continuous quantum nondemolition measurement of the initial state of the qubit. Given some noisy measurement record $\ensuremath{\Psi}$, we seek an estimate of whether the qubit was initially in the ground or excited state. We investigate four different measurement protocols, three of which use a linear filter (with different weighting factors) and a fourth which uses a full nonlinear filter that gives the theoretically optimal estimate of the initial state of the qubit. We find that relaxation of the qubit at rate $1∕{T}_{1}$ strongly influences the fidelity of any measurement protocol. To avoid errors due to this decay, the measurement must be completed in a time that decrease linearly with the desired fidelity while maintaining an adequate signal to noise ratio. We find that for the nonlinear filter the predicted fidelity, as expected, is always better than the linear filters and that the fidelity is a monotone increasing function of the measurement time. For example, to achieve a fidelity of 90%, the box car linear filter requires a signal to noise ratio of $\ensuremath{\sim}30$ in a time ${T}_{1}$, whereas the nonlinear filter only requires a signal to noise ratio of $\ensuremath{\sim}18$.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.76.012325

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We study how the spontaneous relaxation of a qubit affects a continuous quantum nondemolition measurement of the initial state of the qubit. Given some noisy measurement record \ensuremathΨ\ensuremath{\Psi}\ensuremathΨ, we seek an estimate of whether the qubit was initially in the ground or excited state. We investigate four different measurement protocols, three of which use a linear filter (with different weighting factors) and a fourth which uses a full nonlinear filter that gives the theoretically optimal estimate of the initial state of the qubit. We find that relaxation of the qubit at rate 1∕T11∕{T}_{1}1∕T1​ strongly influences the fidelity of any measurement protocol. To avoid errors due to this decay, the measurement must be completed in a time that decrease linearly with the desired fidelity while maintaining an adequate signal to noise ratio. We find that for the nonlinear filter the predicted fidelity, as expected, is always better than the linear filters and that the fidelity is a monotone increasing function of the measurement time. For example, to achieve a fidelity of 90%, the box car linear filter requires a signal to noise ratio of \ensuremath∼30\ensuremath{\sim}30\ensuremath∼30 in a time T1{T}_{1}T1​, whereas the nonlinear filter only requires a signal to noise ratio of \ensuremath∼18\ensuremath{\sim}18\ensuremath∼18.
The measurement of a quantum two-level system, or a qubit in modern terminology, often involves an electromagnetic field that interacts with the qubit, before the field is measured continuously and the qubit state is inferred from the noisy field measurement. During the measurement, the qubit may undergo spontaneous transitions, further obscuring the initial qubit state from the observer. Taking advantage of some well-known techniques in stochastic detection theory, here we propose a signal processing protocol that can infer the initial qubit state optimally from the measurement in the presence of noise and qubit dynamics. Assuming continuous quantum-nondemolition measurements with Gaussian or Poissonian noise and a classical Markov model for the qubit, we derive analytic solutions to the protocol in some special cases of interest using It\ifmmode \bar{o}\else \={o}\fi{} calculus. Our method is applicable to multihypothesis testing for robust qubit readout and relevant to experiments on qubits in superconducting microwave circuits, trapped ions, nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, semiconductor quantum dots, or phosphorus donors in silicon.
We propose a quantum nondemolition measurement using a kicked two-state system (qubit). By tuning the waiting time between kicks to be the qubit oscillation period, the kicking apparatus performs a nondemolition measurement. While dephasing is unavoidable, the nondemolition measurement can (1) slow relaxation of diagonal density matrix elements, (2) avoid detector back-action, and (3) allow for a large signal-to-noise ratio. Deviations from the ideal behavior are investigated by allowing for detuning of the waiting time, as well as finite-time, noisy pulses. The scheme is illustrated with a double-dot qubit measured by a gate-pulsed quantum point contact.
We analyze the relaxation of a superconducting flux qubit during measurement. The qubit state is measured with a nonlinear oscillator driven across the threshold of bifurcation, acting as a switching dispersive detector. This readout scheme is of quantum nondemolition type. Two successive readouts are used to analyze the evolution of the qubit and the detector during the measurement. We introduce a simple transition rate model for characterizing the qubit relaxation and the detector switching process. Corrected for qubit relaxation the readout fidelity is at least 95%. Qubit relaxation strongly depends on the driving strength and the state of the oscillator.
We determine the optimal parameters for a simple and efficient scheme of dispersive readout of a qubit. Depending on the qubit state (ground or excited), the resonance of a cavity is shifted either to the red or to the blue side. Qubit state is inferred by detecting the photon number transmitted through the cavity. It turns out that this kind of detection provides better measurement fidelity than the detection of the presence or absence of photons only. We show that radiating the cavity on either of the frequencies it shifts to results in a suboptimal measurement. The optimal frequency of the probe photons is determined, as well as the optimal ratio of the shift to the resonator leakage. It is shown that to maximize the fidelity of a long-lasting measurement, it is sufficient to use the parameters optimizing the signal-to-noise ratio in the photon count. One can reach 99% fidelity for a single-shot measurement in various physical realizations of the scheme.
Accurate quantum state readout is crucial for error correction and algorithms, but measurement errors are detrimental. Readout fidelity is typically limited by a poor signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and energy relaxation (T1T_1T1​ decay), a significant problem for superconducting qubits. While most approaches classify results using clustering algorithms on integrated readout signals, these methods cannot distinguish a qubit that was initially in the ground state from one that decayed to it during measurement. We instead propose using machine learning (ML) on the raw, non-integrated analog signal. We apply time-series classification models, such as a long short-term memory (LSTM) network, to the full data trajectory. We find that our LSTM model, combined with filtering and feature engineering, consistently outperforms clustering. The largest improvements come from reclassifying points in the boundary regions between clusters. These points correspond to atypical measurement records, likely due to transient or noisy features lost during data integration. By retaining temporal information, sequence-aware models like LSTMs can better discriminate these trajectories, whereas clustering methods based on integrated values are more prone to misclassification.
Quantum technologies, including those based on superconducting quantum circuits, require high-fidelity high-speed detection of the quantum state of a qubit. Standard quantum nondemolition readout of a superconducting qubit is based on its dispersive coupling to a resonator, but this method suffers from the Purcell effects: Purcell decay, critical photon number, and qubit-dependent Kerr nonlinearity. The authors propose a method in which both speed and fidelity of flux-qubit readout can avoid all three Purcell limitations.