A cryogenic amplifier for fast real-time detection of single-electron tunneling

We employ a cryogenic High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) amplifier to increase the bandwidth of a charge detection setup with a quantum point contact (QPC) charge sensor. The HEMT is operating at 1K and the circuit has a bandwidth of 1 MHz. The noise contribution of the HEMT at high frequencies is only a few times higher than that of the QPC shot noise. We use this setup to monitor single-electron tunneling to and from an adjacent quantum dot and we measure fluctuations in the dot occupation as short as 400 nanoseconds, 20 times faster than in previous work.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Nondestructive readout for a superconducting flux qubit

We present a new readout method for a superconducting flux qubit, based on the measurement of the Josephson inductance of a superconducting quantum interference device that is inductively coupled to the qubit. The intrinsic flux detection efficiency and back-action are suitable for a fast and nondestructive determination of the quantum state of the qubit, as needed for readout of multiple qubits in a quantum computer. We performed spectroscopy of a flux qubit and we measured relaxation times of the order of 80 $\mu s$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures; modified content, figures and references; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Real-time detection of single electron tunneling using a quantum point contact

We observe individual tunnel events of a single electron between a quantum dot and a reservoir, using a nearby quantum point contact (QPC) as a charge meter. The QPC is capacitively coupled to the dot, and the QPC conductance changes by about 1% if the number of electrons on the dot changes by one. The QPC is voltage biased and the current is monitored with an IV-convertor at room temperature. We can resolve tunnel events separated by only 8 $\mu$s, limited by noise from the IV-convertor. Shot noise in the QPC sets a 25 ns lower bound on the accessible timescales.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, submitte

Josephson squelch filter for quantum nanocircuits

We fabricated and tested a squelch circuit consisting of a copper powder filter with an embedded Josephson junction connected to ground. For small signals (squelch-ON), the small junction inductance attenuates strongly from DC to at least 1 GHz, while for higher frequencies dissipation in the copper powder increases the attenuation exponentially with frequency. For large signals (squelch-OFF) the circuit behaves as a regular metal powder filter. The measured ON/OFF ratio is larger than 50dB up to 50 MHz. This squelch can be applied in low temperature measurement and control circuitry for quantum nanostructures such as superconducting qubits and quantum dots.Comment: Corrected and completed references 6,7,8. Updated some minor details in figure

Reversing quantum trajectories with analog feedback

We demonstrate the active suppression of transmon qubit dephasing induced by dispersive measurement, using parametric amplification and analog feedback. By real-time processing of the homodyne record, the feedback controller reverts the stochastic quantum phase kick imparted by the measurement on the qubit. The feedback operation matches a model of quantum trajectories with measurement efficiency $\tilde{\eta} \approx 0.5$, consistent with the result obtained by postselection. We overcome the bandwidth limitations of the amplification chain by numerically optimizing the signal processing in the feedback loop and provide a theoretical model explaining the optimization result.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, and Supplementary Information (7 figures

Low-crosstalk bifurcation detectors for coupled flux qubits

We present experimental results on the crosstalk between two AC-operated dispersive bifurcation detectors, implemented in a circuit for high-fidelity readout of two strongly coupled flux qubits. Both phase-dependent and phase-independent contributions to the crosstalk are analyzed. For proper tuning of the phase the measured crosstalk is 0.1 % and the correlation between the measurement outcomes is less than 0.05 %. These results show that bifurcative readout provides a reliable and generic approach for multi-partite correlation experiments.Comment: Copyright 2010 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/?apl/96/12350

An Experimental Microarchitecture for a Superconducting Quantum Processor

Quantum computers promise to solve certain problems that are intractable for classical computers, such as factoring large numbers and simulating quantum systems. To date, research in quantum computer engineering has focused primarily at opposite ends of the required system stack: devising high-level programming languages and compilers to describe and optimize quantum algorithms, and building reliable low-level quantum hardware. Relatively little attention has been given to using the compiler output to fully control the operations on experimental quantum processors. Bridging this gap, we propose and build a prototype of a flexible control microarchitecture supporting quantum-classical mixed code for a superconducting quantum processor. The microarchitecture is based on three core elements: (i) a codeword-based event control scheme, (ii) queue-based precise event timing control, and (iii) a flexible multilevel instruction decoding mechanism for control. We design a set of quantum microinstructions that allows flexible control of quantum operations with precise timing. We demonstrate the microarchitecture and microinstruction set by performing a standard gate-characterization experiment on a transmon qubit.Comment: 13 pages including reference. 9 figure

Covariants,joint invariants and the problem of equivalence in the invariant theory of Killing tensors defined in pseudo-Riemannian spaces of constant curvature

The invariant theory of Killing tensors (ITKT) is extended by introducing the new concepts of covariants and joint invariants of (product) vector spaces of Killing tensors defined in pseudo-Riemannian spaces of constant curvature. The covariants are employed to solve the problem of classification of the orthogonal coordinate webs generated by non-trivial Killing tensors of valence two defined in the Euclidean and Minkowski planes. Illustrative examples are provided.Comment: 60 pages. to appear in J. Math. Phy