Thin film dielectric microstrip kinetic inductance detectors

Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors, or MKIDs, are a type of low temperature detector that exhibit intrinsic frequency domain multiplexing at microwave frequencies. We present the first theory and measurements on a MKID based on a microstrip transmission line resonator. A complete characterization of the dielectric loss and noise properties of these resonators is performed, and agrees well with the derived theory. A competitive noise equivalent power of 5$\times10^{-17}$ W Hz$^{-1/2}$ at 1 Hz has been demonstrated. The resonators exhibit the highest quality factors known in a microstrip resonator with a deposited thin film dielectric.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, APL accepte

Improving the Coherence Time of Superconducting Coplanar Resonators

The quality factor and energy decay time of superconducting resonators have been measured as a function of material, geometry, and magnetic field. Once the dissipation of trapped magnetic vortices is minimized, we identify surface two-level states (TLS) as an important decay mechanism. A wide gap between the center conductor and the ground plane, as well as use of the superconductor Re instead of Al, are shown to decrease loss. We also demonstrate that classical measurements of resonator quality factor at low excitation power are consistent with single-photon decay time measured using qubit-resonator swap experiments.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures for the main paper; total 5 pages, 6 figures including supplementary material. Submitted to Applied Physics Letter

Energy decay and frequency shift of a superconducting qubit from non-equilibrium quasiparticles

Quasiparticles are an important decoherence mechanism in superconducting qubits, and can be described with a complex admittance that is a generalization of the Mattis-Bardeen theory. By injecting non-equilibrium quasiparticles with a tunnel junction, we verify qualitatively the expected change of the decay rate and frequency in a phase qubit. With their relative change in agreement to within 4% of prediction, the theory can be reliably used to infer quasiparticle density. We describe how settling of the decay rate may allow determination of whether qubit energy relaxation is limited by non-equilibrium quasiparticles.Comment: Main paper: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Supplementary material: 8 pages, 3 figure

Deterministic entanglement of photons in two superconducting microwave resonators

Quantum entanglement, one of the defining features of quantum mechanics, has been demonstrated in a variety of nonlinear spin-like systems. Quantum entanglement in linear systems has proven significantly more challenging, as the intrinsic energy level degeneracy associated with linearity makes quantum control more difficult. Here we demonstrate the quantum entanglement of photon states in two independent linear microwave resonators, creating N-photon NOON states as a benchmark demonstration. We use a superconducting quantum circuit that includes Josephson qubits to control and measure the two resonators, and we completely characterize the entangled states with bipartite Wigner tomography. These results demonstrate a significant advance in the quantum control of linear resonators in superconducting circuits.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, and 3 tables including supplementary materia

Quantum process tomography of two-qubit controlled-Z and controlled-NOT gates using superconducting phase qubits

We experimentally demonstrate quantum process tomography of controlled-Z and controlled-NOT gates using capacitively-coupled superconducting phase qubits. These gates are realized by using the $|2\rangle$ state of the phase qubit. We obtain a process fidelity of 0.70 for the controlled-phase and 0.56 for the controlled-NOT gate, with the loss of fidelity mostly due to single-qubit decoherence. The controlled-Z gate is also used to demonstrate a two-qubit Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm with a single function query.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, including supplementary informatio

Reduced phase error through optimized control of a superconducting qubit

Minimizing phase and other errors in experimental quantum gates allows higher fidelity quantum processing. To quantify and correct for phase errors in particular, we have developed a new experimental metrology --- amplified phase error (APE) pulses --- that amplifies and helps identify phase errors in general multi-level qubit architectures. In order to correct for both phase and amplitude errors specific to virtual transitions and leakage outside of the qubit manifold, we implement "half derivative" an experimental simplification of derivative reduction by adiabatic gate (DRAG) control theory. The phase errors are lowered by about a factor of five using this method to $\sim 1.6^{\circ}$ per gate, and can be tuned to zero. Leakage outside the qubit manifold, to the qubit $|2\rangle$ state, is also reduced to $\sim 10^{-4}$ for $20\%$ faster gates.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures with 2 page supplementa

Multiplexed dispersive readout of superconducting phase qubits

We introduce a frequency-multiplexed readout scheme for superconducting phase qubits. Using a quantum circuit with four phase qubits, we couple each qubit to a separate lumped-element superconducting readout resonator, with the readout resonators connected in parallel to a single measurement line. The readout resonators and control electronics are designed so that all four qubits can be read out simultaneously using frequency multiplexing on the one measurement line. This technology provides a highly efficient and compact means for reading out multiple qubits, a significant advantage for scaling up to larger numbers of qubits.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Planar Superconducting Resonators with Internal Quality Factors above One Million

We describe the fabrication and measurement of microwave coplanar waveguide resonators with internal quality factors above 10 million at high microwave powers and over 1 million at low powers, with the best low power results approaching 2 million, corresponding to ~1 photon in the resonator. These quality factors are achieved by controllably producing very smooth and clean interfaces between the resonators' aluminum metallization and the underlying single crystal sapphire substrate. Additionally, we describe a method for analyzing the resonator microwave response, with which we can directly determine the internal quality factor and frequency of a resonator embedded in an imperfect measurement circuit.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl