We report theoretical and experimental work on the development of a vortex qubit based on a microshort in an annular Josephson junction. The microshort creates a potential barrier for the vortex, which produces a double-well potential under the appli
cation of an in-plane magnetic field; The field strength tunes the barrier height. A one-dimensional model for this system is presented, from which we calculate the vortex depinning current and attempt frequency as well as the interwell coupling. Implementation of an effective microshort is achieved via a section of insulating barrier that is locally wider in the junction plane. Using a junction with this geometry we demonstrate classical state preparation and readout. The vortex is prepared in a given potential well by sending a series of shaker bias current pulses through the junction. Readout is accomplished by measuring the vortex depinning current.
We propose a scheme with dc-control of finite bandwidth to implement two-qubit gate for superconducting flux qubits at the optimal point. We provide a detailed non-perturbative analysis on the dynamic evolution of the qubits interacting with a common
quantum bus. An effective qubit-qubit coupling is induced while decoupling the quantum bus with proposed pulse sequences. The two-qubit gate is insensitive to the initial state of the quantum bus and applicable to non-perturbative coupling regime which enables rapid two-qubit operation. This scheme can be scaled up to multi-qubit coupling.
