arXiv subjects

Mazyar Mirrahimi

Publications and source records attributed to Mazyar Mirrahimi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Error Rates and Resource Overheads of Repetition Cat Qubits

We estimate and analyze the error rates and the resource overheads of the repetition cat qubit approach to universal and fault-tolerant quantum computation. The cat qubits stabilized by two-photon dissipation exhibit an extremely biased noise where the bit-flip error rate is exponentially suppressed with the mean number of photons. In a recent work, we suggested that the remaining phase-flip error channel could be suppressed using a 1D repetition code. Indeed, using only bias-preserving gates on the cat-qubits, it is possible to build a universal set of fault-tolerant logical gates at the level of the repetition cat qubit. In this paper, we perform Monte-Carlo simulations of all the circuits implementing the protected logical gates, using a circuit-level error model. Furthermore, we analyze two different approaches to implement a fault-tolerant Toffoli gate on repetition cat qubits. These numerical simulations indicate that very low logical error rates could be achieved with a reasonable resource overhead, and with parameters that are within the reach of near-term circuit QED experiments.

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arXiv2020

The Kerr-Cat Qubit: Stabilization, Readout, and Gates

Quantum superpositions of macroscopically distinct classical states, so-called Schrödinger cat states, are a resource for quantum metrology, quantum communication, and quantum computation. In particular, the superpositions of two opposite-phase coherent states in an oscillator encode a qubit protected against phase-flip errors. However, several challenges have to be overcome in order for this concept to become a practical way to encode and manipulate error-protected quantum information. The protection must be maintained by stabilizing these highly excited states and, at the same time, the system has to be compatible with fast gates on the encoded qubit and a quantum non-demolition readout of the encoded information. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a novel method for the generation and stabilization of Schrödinger cat states based on the interplay between Kerr nonlinearity and single-mode squeezing in a superconducting microwave resonator. We show an increase in transverse relaxation time of the stabilized, error-protected qubit over the single-photon Fock-state encoding by more than one order of magnitude. We perform all single-qubit gate operations on time-scales more than sixty times faster than the shortest coherence time and demonstrate single-shot readout of the protected qubit under stabilization. Our results showcase the combination of fast quantum control with the robustness against errors intrinsic to stabilized macroscopic states and open up the possibility of using these states as resources in quantum information processing.

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arXiv2019

Repetition Cat Qubits for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation

We present a 1D repetition code based on the so-called cat qubits as a viable approach toward hardware-efficient universal and fault-tolerant quantum computation. The cat qubits that are stabilized by a two-photon driven-dissipative process, exhibit a tunable noise bias where the effective bit-flip errors are exponentially suppressed with the average number of photons. We propose a realization of a set of gates on the cat qubits that preserve such a noise bias. Combining these base qubit operations, we build, at the level of the repetition cat qubit, a universal set of fully protected logical gates. This set includes single-qubit preparations and measurements, NOT, controlled-NOT, and controlled-controlled-NOT (Toffoli) gates. Remarkably, this construction avoids the costly magic state preparation, distillation, and injection. Finally, all required operations on the cat qubits could be performed with slight modifications of existing experimental setups.

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arXiv2019

Exponential suppression of bit-flips in a qubit encoded in an oscillator

A quantum system interacts with its environment, if ever so slightly, no matter how much care is put into isolating it. As a consequence, quantum bits (qubits) undergo errors, putting dauntingly difficult constraints on the hardware suitable for quantum computation. New strategies are emerging to circumvent this problem by encoding a qubit non-locally across the phase space of a physical system. Since most sources of decoherence are due to local fluctuations, the foundational promise is to exponentially suppress errors by increasing a measure of this non-locality. Prominent examples are topological qubits which delocalize quantum information over real space and where spatial extent measures non-locality. In this work, we encode a qubit in the field quadrature space of a superconducting resonator endowed with a special mechanism that dissipates photons in pairs. This process pins down two computational states to separate locations in phase space. As we increase this separation, we measure an exponential decrease of the bit-flip rate while only linearly increasing the phase-flip rate. Since bit-flips are continuously and autonomously corrected at the single qubit level, only phase-flips are left to be corrected via a one-dimensional quantum error correction code. This exponential scaling demonstrates that resonators with non-linear dissipation are promising building blocks for universal fault-tolerant quantum computation with drastically reduced hardware overhead.

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arXiv2019

Structural instability of driven Josephson circuits prevented by an inductive shunt

Superconducting circuits are a versatile platform to implement a multitude of Hamiltonians which perform quantum computation, simulation and sensing tasks. A key ingredient for realizing a desired Hamiltonian is the irradiation of the circuit by a strong drive. These strong drives provide an in-situ control of couplings, which cannot be obtained by near-equilibrium Hamiltonians. However, as shown in this paper, out-of-equilibrium systems are easily plagued by complex dynamics leading to instabilities. Predicting and preventing these instabilities is crucial, both from a fundamental and application perspective. We propose an inductively shunted transmon as the elementary circuit optimized for strong parametric drives. Developing a novel numerical approach that avoids the built-in limitations of perturbative analysis, we demonstrate that adding the inductive shunt significantly extends the range of pump powers over which the circuit behaves in a stable manner.

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arXiv2019

Observing the escape of a driven quantum Josephson circuit into unconfined states

Josephson circuits have been ideal systems to study complex non-linear dynamics which can lead to chaotic behavior and instabilities. More recently, Josephson circuits in the quantum regime, particularly in the presence of microwave drives, have demonstrated their ability to emulate a variety of Hamiltonians that are useful for the processing of quantum information. In this paper we show that these drives lead to an instability which results in the escape of the circuit mode into states that are not confined by the Josephson cosine potential. We observe this escape in a ubiquitous circuit: a transmon embedded in a 3D cavity. When the transmon occupies these free-particle-like states, the circuit behaves as though the junction had been removed, and all non-linearities are lost. This work deepens our understanding of strongly driven Josephson circuits, which is important for fundamental and application perspectives, such as the engineering of Hamiltonians by parametric pumping.

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arXiv2018

Stabilized Cat in Driven Nonlinear Cavity: A Fault-Tolerant Error Syndrome Detector

In quantum error correction, information is encoded in a high-dimensional system to protect it from the environment. A crucial step is to use natural, low-weight operations with an ancilla to extract information about errors without causing backaction on the encoded system. Essentially, ancilla errors must not propagate to the encoded system and induce errors beyond those which can be corrected. The current schemes for achieving this fault-tolerance to ancilla errors come at the cost of increased overhead requirements. An efficient way to extract error syndromes in a fault-tolerant manner is by using a single ancilla with strongly biased noise channel. Typically, however, required elementary operations can become challenging when the noise is extremely biased. We propose to overcome this shortcoming by using a bosonic-cat ancilla in a parametrically driven nonlinear cavity. Such a cat-qubit experiences only bit-flip noise and is stabilized against phase-flips. To highlight the flexibility of this approach, we illustrate the syndrome extraction process in a variety of codes such as qubit-based toric codes, bosonic cat- and Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) codes. Our results open a path for realizing hardware-efficient, fault-tolerant error syndrome extraction.

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arXiv2018

Remote entanglement stabilization and distillation by quantum reservoir engineering

Quantum information processing in a modular architecture requires the distribution, stabilization and distillation of entanglement in a qubit network. We present autonomous entanglement stabilization protocols between two superconducting qubits that are coupled to distant cavities. The coupling between cavities is mediated and controlled via a three-wave mixing device that generates either a two-mode squeezed state or a delocalized mode between the remote cavities depending on the pump applied to the mixer. Local drives on the qubits and the cavities steer and maintain the system to the desired qubit Bell state. Most spectacularly, even a weakly-squeezed state can stabilize a maximally entangled Bell state of two distant qubits through an autonomous distillation process. Moreover, we show that such reservoir-engineering based protocols can stabilize entanglement in presence of qubit-cavity asymmetries and losses.

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arXiv2017

A CNOT gate between multiphoton qubits encoded in two cavities

Entangling gates between qubits are a crucial component for performing algorithms in quantum computers. However, any quantum algorithm must ultimately operate on error-protected logical qubits encoded in high-dimensional systems. Typically, logical qubits are encoded in multiple two-level systems, but entangling gates operating on such qubits are highly complex and have not yet been demonstrated. Here, we realize a controlled NOT (CNOT) gate between two multiphoton qubits in two microwave cavities. In this approach, we encode a qubit in the high-dimensional space of a single cavity mode, rather than in multiple two-level systems. We couple two such encoded qubits together through a transmon, which is driven by an RF pump to apply the gate within 190 ns. This is two orders of magnitude shorter than the decoherence time of the transmon, enabling a high-fidelity gate operation. These results are an important step towards universal algorithms on error-corrected logical qubits.

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arXiv2016

Degeneracy-preserving quantum non-demolition measurement of parity-type observables for cat-qubits

A central requirement for any quantum error correction scheme is the ability to perform quantum non-demolition measurements of an error syndrome, corresponding to a special symmetry property of the encoding scheme. It is in particular important that such a measurement does not introduce extra error mechanisms, not included in the error model of the correction scheme. In this letter, we ensure such a robustness by designing an interaction with a measurement device that preserves the degeneracy of the measured observable. More precisely, we propose a scheme to perform continuous and quantum non-demolition measurement of photon-number parity in a microwave cavity. This corresponds to the error syndrome in a class of error correcting codes called the cat-codes, which have recently proven to be efficient and versatile for quantum information processing. In our design, we exploit the strongly nonlinear Hamiltonian of a high-impedance Josephson circuit, coupling a high-Q cavity storage cavity mode to a low-Q readout one. By driving the readout resonator at its resonance, the phase of the reflected/transmitted signal carries directly exploitable information on parity-type observables for encoded cat-qubits of the high-Q mode.

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arXiv2016

Loss-tolerant parity measurement for distant quantum bits

We propose a scheme to measure the parity of two distant qubits, while ensuring that losses on the quantum channel between them does not destroy coherences within the parity subspaces. This capability enables deterministic preparation of highly entangled qubit states whose fidelity is not limited by the transmission loss. The key observation is that for a probe electromagnetic field in a particular quantum state, namely a superposition of two coherent states of opposite phases, the transmission loss stochastically applies a near-unitary back-action on the probe state. This leads to a parity measurement protocol where the main effect of the transmission losses is a decrease in the measurement strength. By repeating the non-destructive (weak) parity measurement, one achieves a high-fidelity entanglement in spite of a significant transmission loss.

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arXiv2016

Holonomic quantum control with continuous variable systems

Universal computation of a quantum system consisting of superpositions of well-separated coherent states of multiple harmonic oscillators can be achieved by three families of adiabatic holonomic gates. The first gate consists of moving a coherent state around a closed path in phase space, resulting in a relative Berry phase between that state and the other states. The second gate consists of "colliding" two coherent states of the same oscillator, resulting in coherent population transfer between them. The third gate is an effective controlled-phase gate on coherent states of two different oscillators. Such gates should be realizable via reservoir engineering of systems which support tunable nonlinearities, such as trapped ions and circuit QED.

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arXiv2016

Demonstrating Quantum Error Correction that Extends the Lifetime of Quantum Information

The remarkable discovery of Quantum Error Correction (QEC), which can overcome the errors experienced by a bit of quantum information (qubit), was a critical advance that gives hope for eventually realizing practical quantum computers. In principle, a system that implements QEC can actually pass a "break-even" point and preserve quantum information for longer than the lifetime of its constituent parts. Reaching the break-even point, however, has thus far remained an outstanding and challenging goal. Several previous works have demonstrated elements of QEC in NMR, ions, nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers, photons, and superconducting transmons. However, these works primarily illustrate the signatures or scaling properties of QEC codes rather than test the capacity of the system to extend the lifetime of quantum information over time. Here we demonstrate a QEC system that reaches the break-even point by suppressing the natural errors due to energy loss for a qubit logically encoded in superpositions of coherent states, or cat states of a superconducting resonator. Moreover, the experiment implements a full QEC protocol by using real-time feedback to encode, monitor naturally occurring errors, decode, and correct. As measured by full process tomography, the enhanced lifetime of the encoded information is 320 microseconds without any post-selection. This is 20 times greater than that of the system's transmon, over twice as long as an uncorrected logical encoding, and 10% longer than the highest quality element of the system (the resonator's 0, 1 Fock states). Our results illustrate the power of novel, hardware efficient qubit encodings over traditional QEC schemes. Furthermore, they advance the field of experimental error correction from confirming the basic concepts to exploring the metrics that drive system performance and the challenges in implementing a fault-tolerant system.

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arXiv2015

Violating Bell's inequality with an artificial atom and a cat state in a cavity

The `Schrödinger's cat' thought experiment highlights the counterintuitive facet of quantum theory that entanglement can exist between microscopic and macroscopic systems, producing a superposition of distinguishable states like the fictitious cat that is both alive and dead. The hallmark of entanglement is the detection of strong correlations between systems, for example by the violation of Bell's inequality. Using the CHSH variant of the Bell test, this violation has been observed with photons, atoms, solid state spins, and artificial atoms in superconducting circuits. For larger, more distinguishable states, the conflict between quantum predictions and our classical expectations is typically resolved due to the rapid onset of decoherence. To investigate this reconciliation, one can employ a superposition of coherent states in an oscillator, known as a cat state. In contrast to discrete systems, one can continuously vary the size of the prepared cat state and therefore its dependence on decoherence. Here we demonstrate and quantify entanglement between an artificial atom and a cat state in a cavity, which we call a `Bell-cat' state. We use a circuit QED architecture, high-fidelity measurements, and real-time feedback control to violate Bell's inequality without post-selection or corrections for measurement inefficiencies. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of decoherence by continuously varying the size of created Bell-cat states and characterize the entangled system by joint Wigner tomography. These techniques provide a toolset for quantum information processing with entangled qubits and resonators. While recent results have demonstrated a high level of control of such systems, this experiment demonstrates that information can be extracted efficiently and with high fidelity, a crucial requirement for quantum computing with resonators.

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arXiv2014

Confining the state of light to a quantum manifold by engineered two-photon loss

Physical systems usually exhibit quantum behavior, such as superpositions and entanglement, only when they are sufficiently decoupled from a lossy environment. Paradoxically, a specially engineered interaction with the environment can become a resource for the generation and protection of quantum states. This notion can be generalized to the confinement of a system into a manifold of quantum states, consisting of all coherent superpositions of multiple stable steady states. We have experimentally confined the state of a harmonic oscillator to the quantum manifold spanned by two coherent states of opposite phases. In particular, we have observed a Schrodinger cat state spontaneously squeeze out of vacuum, before decaying into a classical mixture. This was accomplished by designing a superconducting microwave resonator whose coupling to a cold bath is dominated by photon pair exchange. This experiment opens new avenues in the fields of nonlinear quantum optics and quantum information, where systems with multi-dimensional steady state manifolds can be used as error corrected logical qubits.

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arXiv2014

Non-Poissonian Quantum Jumps of a Fluxonium Qubit due to Quasiparticle Excitations

As the energy relaxation time of superconducting qubits steadily improves, non-equilibrium quasiparticle excitations above the superconducting gap emerge as an increasingly relevant limit for qubit coherence. We measure fluctuations in the number of quasiparticle excitations by continuously monitoring the spontaneous quantum jumps between the states of a fluxonium qubit, in conditions where relaxation is dominated by quasiparticle loss. Resolution on the scale of a single quasiparticle is obtained by performing quantum non-demolition projective measurements within a time interval much shorter than $T_1$, using a quantum limited amplifier (Josephson Parametric Converter). The quantum jumps statistics switches between the expected Poisson distribution and a non-Poissonian one, indicating large relative fluctuations in the quasiparticle population, on time scales varying from seconds to hours. This dynamics can be modified controllably by injecting quasiparticles or by seeding quasiparticle-trapping vortices by cooling down in magnetic field.

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arXiv2014

Continuous Generation and Stabilization of Mesoscopic Field Superposition States in a Quantum Circuit

While dissipation is widely considered as being harmful for quantum coherence, it can, when properly engineered, lead to the stabilization of non-trivial pure quantum states. We propose a scheme for continuous generation and stabilization of Schrödinger cat states in a cavity using dissipation engineering. We first generate non-classical photon states with definite parity by means of a two-photon drive and dissipation, and then stabilize these transient states against single-photon decay. The single-photon stabilization is autonomous, and is implemented through a second engineered bath, which exploits the photon number dependent frequency-splitting due to Kerr interactions in the strongly dispersive regime of circuit QED. Starting with the Hamiltonian of the baths plus cavity, we derive an effective model of only the cavity photon states along with analytic expressions for relevant physical quantities, such as the stabilization rate. The deterministic generation of such cat states is one of the key ingredients in performing universal quantum computation.

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arXiv2014

Dissipation-induced continuous quantum error correction for superconducting circuits

Quantum error correction (QEC) is a crucial step towards long coherence times required for efficient quantum information processing (QIP). One major challenge in this direction concerns the fast real-time analysis of error syndrome measurements and the associated feedback control. Recent proposals on autonomous QEC (AQEC) have opened new perspectives to overcome this difficulty. Here, we design an AQEC scheme based on quantum reservoir engineering adapted to superconducting qubits. We focus on a three-qubit bit-flip code, where three transmon qubits are dispersively coupled to a few low-Q resonator modes. By applying only continuous-wave drives of fixed but well-chosen frequencies and amplitudes, we engineer an effective interaction Hamiltonian to evacuate the entropy created by eventual bit-flip errors. We provide a full analytical and numerical study of the protocol, while introducing the main limitations on the achievable error correction rates.

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