arXiv subjects

Mattias Fitzpatrick

Publications and source records attributed to Mattias Fitzpatrick.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Giant Thermal Amplification via Engineered Dissipation in a Sierpinski-Gasket Aharonov-Bohm Interferometer

We propose a three-terminal thermal amplifier based on a Sierpinski-gasket Aharonov-Bohm interferometer, where the third (base) terminal is realized as a floating Buttiker probe that acts as an engineered dissipative reservoir, exchanging energy with the conductor while carrying no net charge current. Using the nonequilibrium Green's function formalism, we demonstrate that the interplay of quantum coherence and engineered dissipation gives rise to giant, magnetic-flux-controlled thermal amplification, whereas purely coherent transport exhibits little or no amplification. We show that the amplification originates from a flux-induced cancellation of the energy-resolved thermal response of the base terminal, causing its differential heat current to vanish while finite heat currents continue to flow through the emitter and collector terminals. As a result, the thermal gain diverges without requiring resonant transmission. This interference-driven cancellation gives rise to an emergent thermal transparency, closely analogous to electromagnetically induced transparency in optical systems, where destructive quantum interference suppresses the thermal response of the base reservoir while maintaining finite heat transport through the remaining terminals. Our results establish the interplay of engineered dissipation and quantum interference as a powerful mechanism for controlling heat flow and realizing high-performance thermal amplifiers in mesoscopic conductors.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2026

Graduate Training in Quantum Information Science and Engineering: Lessons, Challenges, and a Roadmap from the NSF Research Traineeship Programs

Since 2019, eighteen NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) awards in quantum information science and engineering (QISE) and adjacent fields have been funded, constituting the largest NSF-coordinated investment in graduate QISE training in the United States. Synthesizing lessons from our programs, we work through the central tensions that every QISE graduate program must negotiate: between depth in a home discipline and breadth across the field, between structured instruction and open-ended experiential and hands-on learning, and between training individual specialists and cultivating teams that collectively cover all areas of QISE. We describe the structural and pedagogical innovations the NRT programs have developed in response, assess what is working and what remains unresolved, and sketch 12 open problems the community will need to address as QISE graduate education scales beyond the well-resourced research universities where it has up till now been mainly concentrated. Eight concrete recommendations follow: (1) adopt the startup model of team-based training as an organizing philosophy; (2) invest immediately in sensing and communication curriculum development; (3) build student agency into program governance, not just activities; (4) establish structural mechanisms for industrial engagement rather than depending on goodwill; (5) design for sustainability from year one; (6) develop graduate-level textbooks spanning all three QISE pillars: computing, sensing, and communications; (7) establish shared outcome assessment instruments across programs; and (8) develop structured mechanisms for faculty professional development in QISE.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2025

Spectroscopy and Coherent Control of Two-Level System Defect Ensembles Using a Broadband 3D Waveguide

Defects in solid-state materials play a central role in determining coherence, stability, and performance in quantum technologies. Although narrowband techniques can probe specific resonances with high precision, a broadband spectroscopic approach captures the full spectrum of defect properties and dynamics. Two-level system (TLS) defects in amorphous dielectrics are a particularly important example because they are major sources of decoherence and energy loss in superconducting quantum devices. However, accessing and characterizing their collective dynamics remains far more challenging than probing individual TLS defects. Building on our previously developed Broadband Cryogenic Transient Dielectric Spectroscopy (BCTDS) technique, we study the coherent control and time-resolved dynamics of TLS defect ensembles over a wide frequency range of 3-5 GHz without requiring full device fabrication, revealing quantum interference effects, memory-dependent dynamics, and dressed-state evolution within the TLS defect bath. The spectral response reveals distinct V-shaped structures corresponding to the bare eigenmode frequencies. Using these features, we extract a TLS defect spectral density of 84 GHz^-1 for a silicon sample, across a 4.1-4.6 GHz span. Furthermore, we systematically investigate amplitude- and phase-controlled interference fringes for multiple temperatures and inter-pulse delays, providing direct evidence of coherent dynamics and control. A driven minimal spin model with dipole-dipole interactions that qualitatively capture the observed behavior is presented. Our results establish BCTDS as a versatile platform for broadband defect spectroscopy, offering new capabilities for diagnosing and mitigating sources of decoherence, engineering many-body dynamics, and exploring non-equilibrium phenomena in disordered quantum systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

The Role of Exceptional Points and Transmission Peak Degeneracies in Non-Hermitian Sensing

Transmission peak degeneracies (TPDs) have emerged as a promising alternative to exceptional points (EPs) for non-Hermitian sensing, providing square-root frequency splitting without the eigenbasis collapse and associated noise amplification that limit EP sensors. However, existing treatments of TPDs remain fragmented, lacking a unified theoretical framework, systematic figures of merit, or design principles for practical implementation. Here, we develop a comprehensive theory of two-dimensional TPDs that clarifies their relationship to EPs, maps their locations in parameter space, and provides analytic figures of merit for sensor design. We validate our theory using a tunable cavity-magnonics platform with in situ control of mode frequency, dissipation, and complex coupling via an effective synthetic gauge field. Our platform enables systematic exploration of six representative EP-TPD configurations spanning PT-symmetric, anti-PT-symmetric and anyonic-PT-symmetric regimes. Crucially, we show that TPDs, unlike EPs, retain square-root splitting even under nuisance parameter drift through generalized transmission extrema degeneracies (TEDs). We further identify specific robust TPD configurations that minimize the impact of nuisance drift. These findings establish a unified theoretical and experimental framework for TPD-based non-Hermitian sensing.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Probing the Dynamics of Two-Level System Defect Ensembles via Broadband Cryogenic Transient Dielectric Spectroscopy

Two-level system (TLS) defects in dielectrics are a major source of decoherence in superconducting circuits, yet their microscopic origin and distribution remain poorly understood. Existing circuit-QED probes access limited frequency ranges and mode volumes, restricting studies of isolated materials and interfaces. Here, we present Broadband Cryogenic Transient Dielectric Spectroscopy (BCTDS), a technique for probing TLS-hosting materials over a broad frequency range at cryogenic temperatures. Under strong finite-duration microwave excitation, the transient homodyne I-Q response exhibits coherent phase dynamics after the drive is turned off. Fourier analysis of the transient phase reveals characteristic V-shaped structures that move between cooldowns, consistent with thermocycling-induced changes in the local TLS defect environment that shift defect resonance frequencies. The transient response of BCTDS further enables estimation of susceptibility and two-time correlation functions of the TLS defect ensemble. The observed phase dynamics are qualitatively captured by a driven standard tunneling model containing only a few representative TLS defects. Despite its simplicity relative to the full experimental ensemble, the model reproduces the essential Floquet-dressed dynamics during the drive and generates post-pulse V-shaped structures and interference fringes consistent with the experimental data. The observed BCTDS response may reflect a crossover from localized TLS defect dynamics to a delocalized regime under strong driving, before being quenched into a transient regime that reflects the TLS defect resonance frequencies. Overall, BCTDS represents a potentially useful broadband, time-resolved wafer-level approach for probing TLS defects relevant to quantum technologies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Demonstration of a Tunable Non-Hermitian Nonlinear Microwave Dimer

Achieving and controlling non-reciprocity in engineered photonic structures is of fundamental interest in science and engineering. Here, we introduce a tunable, non-Hermitian, nonlinear microwave dimer designed to precisely implement phase-non-reciprocal hopping dynamics between two spatially separated cavities at room temperature. Our system incorporates simple components such as three-dimensional microwave cavities, unidirectional amplifiers, digital attenuators, and a digital phase shifter. By dividing the energy transfer into forward and backward paths, our platform enables precise control over the amplitude and phase of the propagating signals in each direction. Through a combination of theoretical and numerical analysis, we model the dynamics of the system under different operating conditions, including a parameter regime where the gain not only compensates for but significantly exceeds the inherent loss. Our model quantitatively reproduces the observed weak-drive transmission spectra, the amplitude and frequency of self-sustained limit cycles, and the phase locking synchronization effect between the limit cycle and an external microwave tone. Our results may have implications in areas ranging from sensing and synthetic photonic materials to neuromorphic computing and quantum networks, while providing new insight into the interplay between non-Hermitian and nonlinear dynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Nanoscale covariance magnetometry with diamond quantum sensors

Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are atom-scale defects with long spin coherence times that can be used to sense magnetic fields with high sensitivity and spatial resolution. Typically, the magnetic field projection at a single point is measured by averaging many sequential measurements with a single NV center, or the magnetic field distribution is reconstructed by taking a spatial average over an ensemble of many NV centers. In averaging over many single-NV center experiments, both techniques discard information. Here we propose and implement a new sensing modality, whereby two or more NV centers are measured simultaneously, and we extract temporal and spatial correlations in their signals that would otherwise be inaccessible. We analytically derive the measurable two-point correlator in the presence of environmental noise, quantum projection noise, and readout noise. We show that optimizing the readout noise is critical for measuring correlations, and we experimentally demonstrate measurements of correlated applied noise using spin-to-charge readout of two NV centers. We also implement a spectral reconstruction protocol for disentangling local and nonlocal noise sources, and demonstrate that independent control of two NV centers can be used to measure the temporal structure of correlations. Our covariance magnetometry scheme has numerous applications in studying spatiotemporal structure factors and dynamics, and opens a new frontier in nanoscale sensing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Experimental Bayesian estimation of quantum state preparation, measurement, and gate errors in multi-qubit devices

We introduce a Bayesian method for the estimation of single qubit errors in quantum devices, and use it to characterize these errors on three 27-qubit superconducting qubit devices. We self-consistently estimate up to seven parameters of each qubit's state preparation, readout, and gate errors, analyze the stability of these errors as a function of time, and demonstrate easily implemented approaches for mitigating different errors before a quantum computation experiment. On the investigated devices we find non-negligible qubit reset errors that cannot be parametrized as a diagonal mixed state, but manifest as a coherent phase of a superposition with a small contribution from the qubit's excited state. We are able to mitigate such errors by applying pre-rotations on the initialized qubits, which we demonstrate with multi-qubit entangled states. Our results demonstrate that Bayesian estimation can resolve small parameters - including those pertaining to quantum gate errors - with a high relative accuracy, at a lower measurement cost as compared with standard characterization approaches.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Probing spin dynamics on diamond surfaces using a single quantum sensor

Understanding the dynamics of a quantum bit's environment is essential for the realization of practical systems for quantum information processing and metrology. We use single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond to study the dynamics of a disordered spin ensemble at the diamond surface. Specifically, we tune the density of "dark" surface spins to interrogate their contribution to the decoherence of shallow NV center spin qubits. When the average surface spin spacing exceeds the NV center depth, we find that the surface spin contribution to the NV center free induction decay can be described by a stretched exponential with variable power n. We show that these observations are consistent with a model in which the spatial positions of the surface spins are fixed for each measurement, but some of them reconfigure between measurements. In particular, we observe a depth-dependent critical time associated with a dynamical transition from Gaussian (n=2) decay to n=2/3, and show that this transition arises from the competition between the small decay contributions of many distant spins and strong coupling to a few proximal spins at the surface. These observations demonstrate the potential of a local sensor for understanding complex systems and elucidate pathways for improving and controlling spin qubits at the surface.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

Charge State Dynamics and Optically Detected Electron Spin Resonance Contrast of Shallow Nitrogen-Vacancy Centers in Diamond

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond can be used for nanoscale sensing with atomic resolution and sensitivity; however, it has been observed that their properties degrade as they approach the diamond surface. Here we report that in addition to degraded spin coherence, NV centers within nanometers of the surface can also exhibit decreased fluorescence contrast for optically detected electron spin resonance (OD-ESR). We demonstrate that this decreased OD-ESR contrast arises from charge state dynamics of the NV center, and that it is strongly surface-dependent, indicating that surface engineering will be critical for nanoscale sensing applications based on color centers in diamond.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2020

New material platform for superconducting transmon qubits with coherence times exceeding 0.3 milliseconds

The superconducting transmon qubit is a leading platform for quantum computing and quantum science. Building large, useful quantum systems based on transmon qubits will require significant improvements in qubit relaxation and coherence times, which are orders of magnitude shorter than limits imposed by bulk properties of the constituent materials. This indicates that relaxation likely originates from uncontrolled surfaces, interfaces, and contaminants. Previous efforts to improve qubit lifetimes have focused primarily on designs that minimize contributions from surfaces. However, significant improvements in the lifetime of two-dimensional transmon qubits have remained elusive for several years. Here, we fabricate two-dimensional transmon qubits that have both lifetimes and coherence times with dynamical decoupling exceeding 0.3 milliseconds by replacing niobium with tantalum in the device. We have observed increased lifetimes for seventeen devices, indicating that these material improvements are robust, paving the way for higher gate fidelities in multi-qubit processors.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Line-Graph Lattices: Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Flat Bands, and Implementations in Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics

Materials science and the study of the electronic properties of solids are a major field of interest in both physics and engineering. The starting point for all such calculations is single-electron, or non-interacting, band structure calculations, and in the limit of strong on-site confinement this can be reduced to graph-like tight-binding models. In this context, both mathematicians and physicists have developed largely independent methods for solving these models. In this paper we will combine and present results from both fields. In particular, we will discuss a class of lattices which can be realized as line graphs of other lattices, both in Euclidean and hyperbolic space. These lattices display highly unusual features including flat bands and localized eigenstates of compact support. We will use the methods of both fields to show how these properties arise and systems for classifying the phenomenology of these lattices, as well as criteria for maximizing the gaps. Furthermore, we will present a particular hardware implementation using superconducting coplanar waveguide resonators that can realize a wide variety of these lattices in both non-interacting and interacting form.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Hyperbolic Lattices in Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics

After close to two decades of research and development, superconducting circuits have emerged as a rich platform for both quantum computation and quantum simulation. Lattices of superconducting coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonators have been shown to produce artificial materials for microwave photons, where weak interactions can be introduced either via non-linear resonator materials or strong interactions via qubit-resonator coupling. Here, we highlight the previously-overlooked property that these lattice sites are deformable and allow the realization of tight-binding lattices which are unattainable, even in conventional solid-state systems. In particular, we show that networks of CPW resonators can create a new class of materials which constitute regular lattices in an effective hyperbolic space with constant negative curvature. We present numerical simulations of a series of hyperbolic analogs of the kagome lattice which show unusual densities of states with a spectrally-isolated degenerate flat band. We also present a proof-of-principle experimental realization of one of these lattices. This paper represents the first step towards on-chip quantum simulation of materials science and interacting particles in curved space.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Observation of a dissipative phase transition in a one-dimensional circuit QED lattice

Condensed matter physics has been driven forward by significant experimental and theoretical progress in the study and understanding of equilibrium phase transitions based on symmetry and topology. However, nonequilibrium phase transitions have remained a challenge, in part due to their complexity in theoretical descriptions and the additional experimental difficulties in systematically controlling systems out of equilibrium. Here, we study a one-dimensional chain of 72 microwave cavities, each coupled to a superconducting qubit, and coherently drive the system into a nonequilibrium steady state. We find experimental evidence for a dissipative phase transition in the system in which the steady state changes dramatically as the mean photon number is increased. Near the boundary between the two observed phases, the system demonstrates bistability, with characteristic switching times as long as 60 ms -- far longer than any of the intrinsic rates known for the system. This experiment demonstrates the power of circuit QED systems for studying nonequilibrium condensed matter physics and paves the way for future experiments exploring nonequilbrium physics with many-body quantum optics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Initial state dependence of the quench dynamics in integrable quantum systems

We identify and study classes of initial states in integrable quantum systems that, after the relaxation dynamics following a sudden quench, lead to near-thermal expectation values of few-body observables. In the systems considered here, those states are found to be insulating ground states of lattice hard-core boson Hamiltonians. We show that, as a suitable parameter in the initial Hamiltonian is changed, those states become closer to Fock states (products of single site states) as the outcome of the relaxation dynamics becomes closer to the thermal prediction. At the same time, the energy density approaches a Gaussian. Furthermore, the entropy associated with the generalized canonical and generalized grand-canonical ensembles, introduced to describe observables in integrable systems after relaxation, approaches that of the conventional canonical and grand-canonical ensembles. We argue that those classes of initial states are special because a control parameter allows one to tune the distribution of conserved quantities to approach the one in thermal equilibrium. This helps in understanding the approach of all the quantities studied to their thermal expectation values. However, a finite-size scaling analysis shows that this behavior should not be confused with thermalization as understood for nonintegrable systems.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗