S. Ashhab

Hybrid quantum circuits: Superconducting circuits interacting with other quantum systems

Hybrid quantum circuits combine two or more physical systems, with the goal of harnessing the advantages and strengths of the different systems in order to better explore new phenomena and potentially bring about novel quantum technologies. This article presents a brief overview of the progress achieved so far in the field of hybrid circuits involving atoms, spins and solid-state devices (including superconducting and nanomechanical systems). How these circuits combine elements from atomic physics, quantum optics, condensed matter physics, and nanoscience is discussed, and different possible approaches for integrating various systems into a single circuit are presented. In particular, hybrid quantum circuits can be fabricated on a chip, facilitating their future scalability, which is crucial for building future quantum technologies, including quantum detectors, simulators, and computers.

Landau–Zener–Stückelberg interferometry

Abstract A transition between energy levels at an avoided crossing is known as a Landau–Zener transition. When a two-level system (TLS) is subject to periodic driving with sufficiently large amplitude, a sequence of transitions occurs. The phase accumulated between transitions (commonly known as the Stuckelberg phase) may result in constructive or destructive interference. Accordingly, the physical observables of the system exhibit periodic dependence on the various system parameters. This phenomenon is often referred to as Landau–Zener–Stuckelberg (LZS) interferometry. Phenomena related to LZS interferometry occur in a variety of physical systems. In particular, recent experiments on LZS interferometry in superconducting TLSs (qubits) have demonstrated the potential for using this kind of interferometry as an effective tool for obtaining the parameters characterizing the TLS as well as its interaction with the control fields and with the environment. Furthermore, strong driving could allow for fast and reliable control of the quantum system. Here we review recent experimental results on LZS interferometry, and we present related theory.

Nonperturbative theory of weak pre- and post-selected measurements

Abstract This paper starts with a brief review of the topic of strong and weak pre- and post-selected (PPS) quantum measurements, as well as weak values, and afterwards presents original work. In particular, we develop a nonperturbative theory of weak PPS measurements of an arbitrary system with an arbitrary meter, for arbitrary initial states of the system and the meter. New and simple analytical formulas are obtained for the average and the distribution of the meter pointer variable. These formulas hold to all orders in the weak value. In the case of a mixed preselected state, in addition to the standard weak value, an associated weak value is required to describe weak PPS measurements. In the linear regime, the theory provides the generalized Aharonov–Albert–Vaidman formula. Moreover, we reveal two new regimes of weak PPS measurements: the strongly-nonlinear regime and the inverted region (the regime with a very large weak value), where the system-dependent contribution to the pointer deflection decreases with increasing the measurement strength. The optimal conditions for weak PPS measurements are obtained in the strongly-nonlinear regime, where the magnitude of the average pointer deflection is equal or close to the maximum. This maximum is independent of the measurement strength , being typically of the order of the pointer uncertainty. In the optimal regime, the small parameter of the theory is comparable to the overlap of the pre- and post-selected states. We show that the amplification coefficient in the weak PPS measurements is generally a product of two qualitatively different factors. The effects of the free system and meter Hamiltonians are discussed. We also estimate the size of the ensemble required for a measurement and identify optimal and efficient meters for weak measurements. Exact solutions are obtained for a certain class of the measured observables. These solutions are used for numerical calculations, the results of which agree with the theory. Moreover, the theory is extended to allow for a completely general post-selection measurement. We also discuss time-symmetry properties of PPS measurements of any strength and the relation between PPS and standard (not post-selected) measurements.

Qubit-oscillator systems in the ultrastrong-coupling regime and their potential for preparing nonclassical states

We consider a system composed of a two-level system (i.e., a qubit) and a harmonic oscillator in the ultrastrong-coupling regime, where the coupling strength is comparable to the qubit and oscillator energy scales. Special emphasis is placed on the possibility of preparing nonclassical states in this system. These nonclassical states include squeezed states, Schroedinger-cat states, and entangled states. We start by comparing the predictions of a number of analytical methods that can be used to describe the system under different assumptions, thus analyzing the properties of the system in various parameter regimes. We then examine the ground state of the system and analyze its nonclassical properties. We finally discuss some questions related to the possible experimental observation of the nonclassical states and the effect of decoherence.

Controllable coherent population transfers in superconducting qubits for quantum computing.

We propose an approach to coherently transfer populations between selected quantum states in one- and two-qubit systems by using controllable Stark-chirped rapid adiabatic passages. These evolution-time insensitive transfers, assisted by easily implementable single-qubit phase-shift operations, could serve as elementary logic gates for quantum computing. Specifically, this proposal could be conveniently demonstrated with existing Josephson phase qubits. Our proposal can find an immediate application in the readout of these qubits. Indeed, the broken parity symmetries of the bound states in these artificial atoms provide an efficient approach to design the required adiabatic pulses.

Low-decoherence flux qubit

A flux qubit can have a relatively long decoherence time at the degeneracy point, but away from this point the decoherence time is greatly reduced by dephasing. This limits the practical applications of flux qubits. Here we propose a qubit design modified from the commonly used flux qubit by introducing an additional capacitor shunted in parallel to the smaller Josephson junction (JJ) in the loop. Our results show that the effects of noise can be considerably suppressed, particularly away from the degeneracy point, by both reducing the coupling energy of the JJ and increasing the shunt capacitance. This shunt capacitance provides a novel way to improve the qubit.

Control-free control: Manipulating a quantum system using only a limited set of measurements

We present and discuss different protocols for preparing an arbitrary quantum state of a qubit using only a restricted set of measurements, with no unitary operations at all. We show that an arbitrary state can indeed be prepared, provided that the available measurements satisfy certain requirements. Our results shed light on the role that measurement-induced back-action plays in quantum feedback control and the extent to which this back-action can be exploited in quantum-control protocols.

Fully connected network of superconducting qubits in a cavity

A fully connected qubit network is considered, where every qubit interacts with every other one. When the interactions between the qubits are homogeneous, the system is a special case of the finite Lipkin–Meshkov–Glick (LMG) model. We propose a natural implementation of this model using superconducting qubits in state-of-the-art circuit QED. The ground state, the low-lying energy spectrum and the dynamical evolution are investigated. We find that, under realistic conditions, highly entangled states of Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger (GHZ) and W types can be generated. We also comment on the influence of disorder on the system and discuss the possibility of simulating complex quantum systems, such as Sherrington–Kirkpatrick (SK) spin glasses, with superconducting qubit networks.

Entanglement amplification via local weak measurements

We propose a measurement-based method to produce a maximally-entangled state from a partially-entangled pure state. Our goal can be thought of as entanglement distillation from a single copy of a partially-entangled state. The present approach involves local two-outcome weak measurements. We show that the application of these local weak measurements leads to a probabilistic amplification of entanglement. In addition, we examine how the probability to find the maximally-entangled state is related to the entanglement of the input state. We also study the application of our method to a mixed initial state. We show that the protocol is successful if the separable part of the mixed initial state fulfils certain conditions.

Lower limit on the achievable temperature in resonator-based sideband cooling

A resonator with eigenfrequency