Luigi Frunzio

Coupling superconducting qubits via a cavity bus.

Superconducting circuits are promising candidates for constructing quantum bits (qubits) in a quantum computer; single-qubit operations are now routine, and several examples of two-qubit interactions and gates have been demonstrated. These experiments show that two nearby qubits can be readily coupled with local interactions. Performing gate operations between an arbitrary pair of distant qubits is highly desirable for any quantum computer architecture, but has not yet been demonstrated. An efficient way to achieve this goal is to couple the qubits to a ‘quantum bus’, which distributes quantum information among the qubits. Here we show the implementation of such a quantum bus, using microwave photons confined in a transmission line cavity, to couple two superconducting qubits on opposite sides of a chip. The interaction is mediated by the exchange of virtual rather than real photons, avoiding cavity-induced loss. Using fast control of the qubits to switch the coupling effectively on and off, we demonstrate coherent transfer of quantum states between the qubits. The cavity is also used to perform multiplexed control and measurement of the qubit states. This approach can be expanded to more than two qubits, and is an attractive architecture for quantum information processing on a chip.

Demonstration of two-qubit algorithms with a superconducting quantum processor

Quantum computers, which harness the superposition and entanglement of physical states, could outperform their classical counterparts in solving problems with technological impact—such as factoring large numbers and searching databases. A quantum processor executes algorithms by applying a programmable sequence of gates to an initialized register of qubits, which coherently evolves into a final state containing the result of the computation. Building a quantum processor is challenging because of the need to meet simultaneously requirements that are in conflict: state preparation, long coherence times, universal gate operations and qubit readout. Processors based on a few qubits have been demonstrated using nuclear magnetic resonance, cold ion trap and optical systems, but a solid-state realization has remained an outstanding challenge. Here we demonstrate a two-qubit superconducting processor and the implementation of the Grover search and Deutsch–Jozsa quantum algorithms. We use a two-qubit interaction, tunable in strength by two orders of magnitude on nanosecond timescales, which is mediated by a cavity bus in a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture. This interaction allows the generation of highly entangled states with concurrence up to 94 per cent. Although this processor constitutes an important step in quantum computing with integrated circuits, continuing efforts to increase qubit coherence times, gate performance and register size will be required to fulfil the promise of a scalable technology.

Observation of High Coherence in Josephson Junction Qubits Measured in a Three-Dimensional Circuit QED Architecture

Superconducting quantum circuits based on Josephson junctions have made rapid progress in demonstrating quantum behavior and scalability. However, the future prospects ultimately depend upon the intrinsic coherence of Josephson junctions, and whether superconducting qubits can be adequately isolated from their environment. We introduce a new architecture for superconducting quantum circuits employing a three-dimensional resonator that suppresses qubit decoherence while maintaining sufficient coupling to the control signal. With the new architecture, we demonstrate that Josephson junction qubits are highly coherent, with T2 ∼ 10 to 20  μs without the use of spin echo, and highly stable, showing no evidence for 1/f critical current noise. These results suggest that the overall quality of Josephson junctions in these qubits will allow error rates of a few 10(-4), approaching the error correction threshold.

Resolving photon number states in a superconducting circuit

Electromagnetic signals are always composed of photons, although in the circuit domain those signals are carried as voltages and currents on wires, and the discreteness of the photons energy is usually not evident. However, by coupling a superconducting quantum bit (qubit) to signals on a microwave transmission line, it is possible to construct an integrated circuit in which the presence or absence of even a single photon can have a dramatic effect. Such a system can be described by circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED)—the circuit equivalent of cavity QED, where photons interact with atoms or quantum dots. Previously, circuit QED devices were shown to reach the resonant strong coupling regime, where a single qubit could absorb and re-emit a single photon many times. Here we report a circuit QED experiment in the strong dispersive limit, a new regime where a single photon has a large effect on the qubit without ever being absorbed. The hallmark of this strong dispersive regime is that the qubit transition energy can be resolved into a separate spectral line for each photon number state of the microwave field. The strength of each line is a measure of the probability of finding the corresponding photon number in the cavity. This effect is used to distinguish between coherent and thermal fields, and could be used to create a photon statistics analyser. As no photons are absorbed by this process, it should be possible to generate non-classical states of light by measurement and perform qubit–photon conditional logic, the basis of a logic bus for a quantum computer.

Preparation and measurement of three-qubit entanglement in a superconducting circuit

Traditionally, quantum entanglement has been central to foundational discussions of quantum mechanics. The measurement of correlations between entangled particles can have results at odds with classical behaviour. These discrepancies grow exponentially with the number of entangled particles. With the ample experimental confirmation of quantum mechanical predictions, entanglement has evolved from a philosophical conundrum into a key resource for technologies such as quantum communication and computation. Although entanglement in superconducting circuits has been limited so far to two qubits, the extension of entanglement to three, eight and ten qubits has been achieved among spins, ions and photons, respectively. A key question for solid-state quantum information processing is whether an engineered system could display the multi-qubit entanglement necessary for quantum error correction, which starts with tripartite entanglement. Here, using a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture, we demonstrate deterministic production of three-qubit Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) states with fidelity of 88 per cent, measured with quantum state tomography. Several entanglement witnesses detect genuine three-qubit entanglement by violating biseparable bounds by 830 ± 80 per cent. We demonstrate the first step of basic quantum error correction, namely the encoding of a logical qubit into a manifold of GHZ-like states using a repetition code. The integration of this encoding with decoding and error-correcting steps in a feedback loop will be the next step for quantum computing with integrated circuits.

Realization of three-qubit quantum error correction with superconducting circuits

Quantum computers could be used to solve certain problems exponentially faster than classical computers, but are challenging to build because of their increased susceptibility to errors. However, it is possible to detect and correct errors without destroying coherence, by using quantum error correcting codes. The simplest of these are three-quantum-bit (three-qubit) codes, which map a one-qubit state to an entangled three-qubit state; they can correct any single phase-flip or bit-flip error on one of the three qubits, depending on the code used. Here we demonstrate such phase- and bit-flip error correcting codes in a superconducting circuit. We encode a quantum state, induce errors on the qubits and decode the error syndrome—a quantum state indicating which error has occurred—by reversing the encoding process. This syndrome is then used as the input to a three-qubit gate that corrects the primary qubit if it was flipped. As the code can recover from a single error on any qubit, the fidelity of this process should decrease only quadratically with error probability. We implement the correcting three-qubit gate (known as a conditional-conditional NOT, or Toffoli, gate) in 63 nanoseconds, using an interaction with the third excited state of a single qubit. We find 85 ± 1 per cent fidelity to the expected classical action of this gate, and 78 ± 1 per cent fidelity to the ideal quantum process matrix. Using this gate, we perform a single pass of both quantum bit- and phase-flip error correction and demonstrate the predicted first-order insensitivity to errors. Concatenation of these two codes in a nine-qubit device would correct arbitrary single-qubit errors. In combination with recent advances in superconducting qubit coherence times, this could lead to scalable quantum technology.

High-Cooperativity Coupling of Electron-Spin Ensembles to Superconducting Cavities

Electron spins in solids are promising candidates for quantum memories for superconducting qubits because they can have long coherence times, large collective couplings, and many qubits could be encoded into spin waves of a single ensemble. We demonstrate the coupling of electron-spin ensembles to a superconducting transmission-line cavity at strengths greatly exceeding the cavity decay rates and comparable to the spin linewidths. We also perform broadband spectroscopy of ruby (Al₂O₃:Cr(3+)) at millikelvin temperatures and low powers, using an on-chip feedline. In addition, we observe hyperfine structure in diamond P1 centers.

Suppressing charge noise decoherence in superconducting charge qubits

We present an experimental realization of the transmon qubit, which is an improved superconducting charge qubit derived from the Cooper pair box. We experimentally verify the predicted exponential suppression of sensitivity to

Approaching unit visibility for control of a superconducting qubit with dispersive readout

1∕f

Phase-preserving amplification near the quantum limit with a Josephson ring modulator

charge noise. This removes the leading source of dephasing in charge qubits which results in homogeneously broadened transitions with relaxation and dephasing times in the microsecond range. Our systematic characterization of the qubit spectrum, anharmonicity, and charge dispersion shows excellent agreement with theory.