Observation of Strong Coulomb Blockade in Resistively Isolated Tunnel Junctions

We report measurements of the Coulomb-blockade current in resistively isolated (R_{Isol} >> h/e^{2}) tunnel junctions for the temperature range 60mK $We report measurements of the Coulomb-blockade current in resistively isolated ($R_{Isol}\gg h/e^{2})$ tunnel junctions for the temperature range 60mK < T < 230mK where the charging energy E_{c} is much greater than the thermal energy. A zero-bias resistance R_{0} of up to 10^{4}R_{T} (the tunnel resistance of the bare junction) is obtained. For eV << E_{c}, the I-V curves for a given R_{Isol} scale as a function of V/T, with I \propto V^{\alpha (R_{Isol})} over a range of V. The data agree well with numerical calculations of the tunneling rate that include environmental effects.Comment: 13 pages, 3 eps figure

Suppression of dephasing by qubit motion in superconducting circuits

We suggest and demonstrate a protocol which suppresses dephasing due to the low-frequency noise by qubit motion, i.e., transfer of the logical qubit of information in a system of $n \geq 2$ physical qubits. The protocol requires only the nearest-neighbor coupling and is applicable to different qubit structures. We further analyze its effectiveness against noises with arbitrary correlations. Our analysis, together with experiments using up to three superconducting qubits, shows that for the realistic uncorrelated noises, qubit motion increases the dephasing time of the logical qubit as $\sqrt{n}$. In general, the protocol provides a diagnostic tool to measure the noise correlations.Comment: 5 pages with 3 embedded figures, plus supplementary informatio

Generation of GHZ entangled states of photons in multiple cavities via a superconducting qutrit or an atom through resonant interaction

We propose an efficient method to generate a GHZ entangled state of n photons in n microwave cavities (or resonators) via resonant interaction to a single superconducting qutrit. The deployment of a qutrit, instead of a qubit, as the coupler enables us to use resonant interactions exclusively for all qutrit-cavity and qutrit-pulse operations. This unique approach significantly shortens the time of operation which is advantageous to reducing the adverse effects of qutrit decoherence and cavity decay on fidelity of the protocol. Furthermore, the protocol involves no measurement on either the state of qutrit or cavity photons. We also show that the protocol can be generalized to other systems by replacing the superconducting qutrit coupler with different types of physical qutrit, such as an atom in the case of cavity QED, to accomplish the same task.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Atmospheric Acetaldehyde: Importance of Air-Sea Exchange and a Missing Source in the Remote Troposphere

We report airborne measurements of acetaldehyde (CH₃CHO) during the first and second deployments of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom). The budget of CH₃CHO is examined using the Community Atmospheric Model with chemistry (CAM‐chem), with a newly‐developed online air‐sea exchange module. The upper limit of the global ocean net emission of CH₃CHO is estimated to be 34 Tg a⁻¹ (42 Tg a⁻¹ if considering bubble‐mediated transfer), and the ocean impacts on tropospheric CH₃CHO are mostly confined to the marine boundary layer. Our analysis suggests that there is an unaccounted CH₃CHO source in the remote troposphere and that organic aerosols can only provide a fraction of this missing source. We propose that peroxyacetic acid (PAA) is an ideal indicator of the rapid CH₃CHO production in the remote troposphere. The higher‐than‐expected CH₃CHO measurements represent a missing sink of hydroxyl radicals (and halogen radical) in current chemistry‐climate models

Quantum Phase Diffusion in a Small Underdamped Josephson Junction

Quantum phase diffusion in a small underdamped Nb/AlO$_x$/Nb junction ($\sim$ 0.4 $\mu$m$^2$) is demonstrated in a wide temperature range of 25-140 mK where macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) is the dominant escape mechanism. We propose a two-step transition model to describe the switching process in which the escape rate out of the potential well and the transition rate from phase diffusion to the running state are considered. The transition rate extracted from the experimental switching current distribution follows the predicted Arrhenius law in the thermal regime but is greatly enhanced when MQT becomes dominant.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Suppression of Dephasing by Qubit Motion in Superconducting Circuits

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grants No. 2014CB921200 and No. 2012CB927404), U.S. NSF Grants No. PHY-1314758 and No. PHY-1314861, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 11434008 and No. 11222437), and the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LR12A04001).We suggest and demonstrate a protocol which suppresses the low-frequency dephasing by qubit motion, i.e., transfer of the logical qubit of information in a system of n≥2 physical qubits. The protocol requires only the nearest-neighbor coupling and is applicable to different qubit structures. Our analysis of its effectiveness against noises with arbitrary correlations, together with experiments using up to three superconducting qubits, shows that for the realistic uncorrelated noises, qubit motion increases the dephasing time of the logical qubit as =√n. In general, the protocol provides a diagnostic tool for measurements of the noise correlations

Quantum and classical resonant escapes of a strongly-driven Josephson junction

The properties of phase escape in a dc SQUID at 25 mK, which is well below quantum-to-classical crossover temperature $T_{cr}$, in the presence of strong resonant ac driving have been investigated. The SQUID contains two Nb/Al-AlO$_{x}$/Nb tunnel junctions with Josephson inductance much larger than the loop inductance so it can be viewed as a single junction having adjustable critical current. We find that with increasing microwave power $W$ and at certain frequencies $\nu$ and $\nu$/2, the single primary peak in the switching current distribution, \textrm{which is the result of macroscopic quantum tunneling of the phase across the junction}, first shifts toward lower bias current $I$ and then a resonant peak develops. These results are explained by quantum resonant phase escape involving single and two photons with microwave-suppressed potential barrier. As $W$ further increases, the primary peak gradually disappears and the resonant peak grows into a single one while shifting further to lower $I$. At certain $W$, a second resonant peak appears, which can locate at very low $I$ depending on the value of $\nu$. Analysis based on the classical equation of motion shows that such resonant peak can arise from the resonant escape of the phase particle with extremely large oscillation amplitude resulting from bifurcation of the nonlinear system. Our experimental result and theoretical analysis demonstrate that at $T\ll T_{cr}$, escape of the phase particle could be dominated by classical process, such as dynamical bifurcation of nonlinear systems under strong ac driving.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl