No Arabic abstract
We report a direct measurement of the low-frequency noise spectrum in a superconducting flux qubit. Our method uses the noise sensitivity of a free-induction Ramsey interference experiment, comprising free evolution in the presence of noise for a fixed period of time followed by single-shot qubit-state measurement. Repeating this procedure enables Fourier-transform noise spectroscopy with access to frequencies up to the achievable repetition rate, a regime relevant to dephasing in ensemble-averaged time-domain measurements such as Ramsey interferometry. Rotating the qubits quantization axis allows us to measure two types of noise: effective flux noise and effective critical-current or charge noise. For both noise sources, we observe that the very same 1/f-type power laws measured at considerably higher frequencies (0.2-20 MHz) are consistent with the noise in the 0.01-100-Hz range measured here. We find no evidence of temperature dependence of the noises over 65-200 mK, and also no evidence of time-domain correlations between the two noises. These methods and results are pertinent to the dephasing of all superconducting qubits.
We have studied low-frequency resistance fluctuations in shadow-evaporated Al/AlOx/Al tunnel junctions. Between 300 K and 5 K the spectral density follows a 1/f-law. Below 5 K, individual defects distort the 1/f-shape of the spectrum. The spectral density decreases linearly with temperature between 150 K and 1 K and saturates below 0.8 K. At 4.2 K, the spectral density is about two orders of magnitude lower than expected from a recent survey [D. J. Van Harlingen et al., Phys. Rev. B 70, 064510 (2004)]. Due to the saturation below 0.8 K the estimated qubit dephasing times at 100 mK are only about two times longer than calculated by Van Harlingen et al.
A general method for directly measuring the low-frequency flux noise (below 10 Hz) in compound Josephson junction superconducting flux qubits has been used to study a series of 85 devices of varying design. The variation in flux noise across sets of qubits with identical designs was observed to be small. However, the levels of flux noise systematically varied between qubit designs with strong dependence upon qubit wiring length and wiring width. Furthermore, qubits fabricated above a superconducting ground plane yielded lower noise than qubits without such a layer. These results support the hypothesis that localized magnetic impurities in the vicinity of the qubit wiring are a key source of low frequency flux noise in superconducting devices.
We study the effects of correlated low frequency noise sources acting on a two qubit gate in a fixed coupling scheme. A phenomenological model for the spatial and cross-talk correlations is introduced. The decoherence inside the SWAP subspace is analysed by combining analytic results based on the adiabatic approximation and numerical simulations. Results critically depend on amplitude of the low frequency noise with respect to the qubits coupling strength. Correlations between noise sources induce qualitative different behaviors depending on the values of the above parameters. The possibility to reduce dephasing due to correlated low frequency noise by a recalibration protocol is discussed.
We demonstrate coherent control and measurement of a superconducting qubit coupled to a superconducting coplanar waveguide resonator with a dynamically tunable qubit-cavity coupling strength. Rabi oscillations are measured for several coupling strengths showing that the qubit transition can be turned off by a factor of more than 1500. We show how the qubit can still be accessed in the off state via fast flux pulses. We perform pulse delay measurements with synchronized fast flux pulses on the device and observe $T_1$ and $T_2$ times of 1.6 and 1.9 $mu$s, respectively. This work demonstrates how this qubit can be incorporated into quantum computing architectures.
We demonstrate amplification of a microwave signal by a strongly driven two-level system in a coplanar waveguide resonator. The effect known from optics as dressed-state lasing is observed with a single quantum system formed by a persistent current (flux) qubit. The transmission through the resonator is enhanced when the Rabi frequency of the driven qubit is tuned into resonance with one of the resonator modes. Amplification as well as linewidth narrowing of a weak probe signal has been observed. The laser emission at the resonators fundamental mode has been studied by measuring the emission spectrum. We analyzed our system and found an excellent agreement between the experimental results and the theoretical predictions obtained in the dressed-state model.