arXiv subjects

Morten Kjaergaard

Publications and source records attributed to Morten Kjaergaard.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Observation of coherent flux-charge interaction in a gate-tunable fluxonium

Interactions that mix conjugate variables, such as the flux through a circuit element and the charge across it, lie outside the reach of the elementary couplings of superconducting circuits. Capacitors connect charge to charge, and inductors connect flux to flux, while no two-terminal element couples flux to charge directly. A native flux-charge coupling would thus serve as a circuit primitive in its own right, opening direct routes to non-reciprocity, protected modes, and unconventional readout. In this work, we demonstrate a flux-charge coupling by harnessing a voltage-tunable Josephson junction with parametrically modulated critical current, which mediates the interaction between a classical charge variable and a quantum flux operator. Relying on parity-selection rules in a hybrid superconducting-semiconductor fluxonium, we isolate the flux-charge coupling from other parasitic capacitive contributions and perform cross-quadrature-activated coherent control of states. Critically, we realize a flux-charge coupling that scales linearly with driving amplitude while keeping the transition energy first-order-insensitive to gate voltage. Such unconventional interaction broadens the toolbox of superconducting circuits with a critical missing component that enables the coherent coupling of conjugate variables.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Learning Lindblad Dynamics of a Superconducting Quantum Processor

Accurate models of quantum processors are essential for understanding, calibrating, and improving their performance. In practice, model construction must balance physical detail against the experimental and computational effort required to reliably learn parameters. Compact descriptions therefore often rely on assumptions about which interactions, noise processes, or hidden degrees of freedom are relevant. Here we introduce LIMINAL, a data-driven framework for testing such assumptions and selecting minimal adequate Lindblad models. LIMINAL fits nested candidate models to time-resolved tomographic data and uses likelihood-ratio tests to decide when added physical mechanisms are warranted. We apply LIMINAL to a five-qubit superconducting processor, identifying an idling model with three-local Hamiltonian terms and two-local dissipation, while finding no support for three-local dissipation. We further apply it to recover driven single-qubit Hamiltonians, reconstruct a shaped-pulse Hamiltonian without assuming an analytic pulse model, and test hidden-qubit extensions in coupler-mediated dynamics, demonstrating the applicability of the framework for a wide range of tasks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Junction-Intrinsic Dissipation in Hybrid Superconductor-Semiconductor Gatemon Qubits

Superconducting transmon qubits based on hybrid superconductor-semiconductor Josephson junctions (gatemons) offer gate tunability, but their relaxation times remain well below those of state-of-the-art transmons, and the origin of this discrepancy is not fully understood. Here, we co-fabricate gatemons and SIS-junction transmons with nominally identical circuit layouts, gate dielectrics, and control lines, so that the Josephson element is the only intentional distinction. Across multiple chips, transmons in this architecture reach relaxation times in the tens of microseconds, whereas gatemons saturate in the few-microsecond range. Using the transmons as on-chip references, we construct a loss budget including Purcell decay, spontaneous emission through the control line, and internal dielectric loss, and find that the corresponding T1 limits exceed all measured gatemon values by more than an order of magnitude. Temperature-dependent T1 measurements follow a common quasiparticle-activation model and yield similar superconducting gaps for S-Sm-S and SIS junctions, indicating that the reduced gatemon coherence is dominated by additional temperature-independent, junction-intrinsic dissipation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Low-energy spectrum of double-junction superconducting circuits in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation

The superconductor-insulator-superconductor Josephson junction is the fundamental nonlinear element of superconducting circuits. Connecting two junctions in series gives rise to higher-harmonic content in the total energy-phase relation, enabling new design opportunities in multimode circuits. However, the double-junction element hosts an internal mode whose spectrum is set by the finite capacitances of the individual junctions. Using a Born-Oppenheimer approximation that treats the additional mode as fast compared to the qubit mode, we analyze the double-junction circuit element shunted by a large capacitor. Here, we derive an effective single-mode model of the qubit containing a correction term owing to the presence of the internal mode. In experimentally relevant parameter regimes, we numerically find that our model accurately describes the low-energy spectrum of the qubit. We further discuss how eliminating the internal degree of freedom affects the system's periodic boundary conditions and leads to non-uniqueness in performing the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Finally, we analyze the harmonic content of the double-junction element and discuss its sensitivity to charge noise.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Demonstrating and Benchmarking Classical Shadows for Lindblad Tomography

Spurious couplings and decoherence degrade the performance of solid-state quantum processors, demanding careful design, calibration, and mitigation protocols. These strategies often rely on characterization of the idling processor, but tomographic recovery of (time-independent) Lindblad dynamics scales exponentially with qubit count. Here, we experimentally benchmark and demonstrate that randomized ("shadow") measurements accelerate Lindblad tomography on a superconducting transmon processor. We first implement extensible Lindblad tomography, which estimates Lindblad parameters using a complete tomographic dataset, and use it as a baseline to benchmark a shadow tomography approach, shadow Lindblad tomography. The shadow approach recycles randomized configurations to estimate the same Lindblad parameters using far fewer resources under physically motivated locality assumptions. We experimentally verify these assumptions in our processor by implementing the protocols on one- and three-qubit subsystems; here, shadow Lindblad tomography reproduces extensible Lindblad tomography within uncertainties while using exponentially fewer configurations. Leveraging this efficiency, we apply shadow Lindblad tomography to the full five-qubit processor and recover all single qubit dissipation and two-qubit coupling parameters in 9 hours of acquisition time compared to an estimated 58 hours for extensible Lindblad tomography. Additionally, our shadow implementation is compatible with conventional Gaussian error propagation, avoiding the use of median-of-means estimators. Together, these results demonstrate how randomized shadow tomography protocols can be practically implemented to learn quantum processor dynamics at an increasing qubit count.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Millisecond-Scale Calibration and Benchmarking of Superconducting Qubits

Superconducting qubit parameters drift on sub-second timescales, motivating calibration and benchmarking techniques that can be executed on millisecond timescales. We demonstrate an on-FPGA workflow that co-locates pulse generation, data acquisition, analysis, and feed-forward, eliminating CPU round trips. Within this workflow, we introduce sparse-sampling and on-FPGA inference tools, including computationally efficient methods for estimation of exponential and sine-like response functions, as well as on-FPGA implementations of Nelder-Mead optimization and golden-section search. These methods enable low-latency primitives for readout calibration, spectroscopy, pulse-amplitude calibration, coherence estimation, and benchmarking. We deploy this toolset to estimate $T_1$ in 10 ms, optimize readout parameters in 100 ms, optimize pulse amplitudes in 1 ms, and perform Clifford randomized gate benchmarking in 107 ms on a flux-tunable superconducting transmon qubit. Running a closed-loop on-FPGA recalibration protocol continuously for 6 hours enables more than 74,000 consecutive recalibrations and yields gate errors that consistently retain better performance than the baseline initial calibration. Correlation analysis shows that recalibration suppresses coupling of gate error to control-parameter drift while preserving a coherence-linked performance. Finally, we quantify uncertainty versus time-to-decision under our sparse sampling approaches and identify optimal parameter regimes for efficient estimation of qubit and pulse parameters.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Controlled Parity of Cooper Pair Tunneling in a Hybrid Superconducting Qubit

Superconducting quantum circuits derive their nonlinearity from the Josephson energy-phase relation. Besides the fundamental $\cos\phi$ term, this relation can also contain higher Fourier harmonics $\cos(k\phi)$ corresponding to correlated tunneling of $k$ Cooper pairs. The parity of the dominant tunneling process, i.e.~whether an odd or even number of Cooper pairs tunnel, results in qualitatively different properties, and controlling this opens up a wide range of applications in superconducting technology. However, access to even-dominated regimes has remained challenging and has so far relied on complex multi-junction or all-hybrid architectures. Here, we demonstrate a simple "harmonic parity qubit" (HPQ); an element that combines two aluminum-oxide tunnel junctions in parallel to a gate-tunable InAs/Al nanowire junction forming a SQUID, and use spectroscopy versus flux to reconstruct its energy-phase relation at 85 gate voltage points. At half flux quantum, the odd harmonics of the Josephson potential can be suppressed by up to two orders of magnitude relative to the even harmonics, producing a double-well potential dominated by even harmonics with minima near $\pm\pi/2$. The ability to control harmonic parity enables supercurrent carried by pairs of Cooper pairs and provides a new building block for Fourier engineering in superconducting circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Higher Josephson harmonics in a tunable double-junction transmon qubit

Tunable Josephson harmonics open new avenues for qubit design. We demonstrate a superconducting circuit element consisting of a tunnel junction in series with a SQUID loop, yielding a Josephson potential whose harmonic content is strongly tunable by magnetic flux. Through spectroscopy of the first four qubit transitions, together with an effective single-mode model renormalized by the internal mode, we resolve a second harmonic with an amplitude up to $\sim10\%$ of the fundamental. We identify a flux sweet spot where the dispersive shift vanishes, achieved by balancing the dispersive couplings to the internal and qubit modes. This highly tunable element provides a route toward protected qubits and customizable nonlinear microwave devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Real-time adaptive tracking of fluctuating relaxation rates in superconducting qubits

The fidelity of operations on a solid-state quantum processor is fundamentally bounded by environmental decoherence. Characterizing environmental fluctuations is challenging because the acquisition time of nonadaptive experimental protocols limits temporal precision and can average out rapid features of the underlying dynamics. Here, we overcome this temporal-resolution limit by two orders of magnitude using a field-programmable gate-array (FPGA) powered classical controller that adaptively and continuously tracks the relaxation-time fluctuations of two fixed-frequency superconducting transmon qubits, which exhibit average relaxation times of approximately 0.17 ms and occasionally exceed 0.5 ms. We report events in which the relaxation time switches by nearly an order of magnitude over timescales of just tens of milliseconds, rather than minutes or hours as previously reported. Our real-time Bayesian estimation protocol estimates relaxation times within a few milliseconds, close to the decoherence timescale itself. Our statistical analysis further suggests that some of these fast fluctuations arise from two-level systems switching at rates up to 10 Hz, four orders of magnitude faster than earlier reports. These results redefine the timescales relevant for calibration in superconducting quantum processing units, establish a reference for rapid relaxation-rate characterization in device screening, and improve our understanding of fast relaxation dynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Andreev spin relaxation time in a shadow-evaporated InAs weak link

Andreev spin qubits are a new qubit platform that merges superconductivity with semiconductor physics. The mechanisms dominating observed energy relaxation remain unidentified. We report here on three steps taken to address these questions in an InAs nanowire weak link. First, we designed a microwave readout circuit tuned to be directly sensitive to the spin-dependent inductance of the weak link so that higher orbital states are not necessary for readout -- this resulted in larger windows in parameter space in which the spin state properties can be probed. Second, we implemented a successful gap-engineering strategy to mitigate quasiparticle poisoning. Third, the weak link was fabricated by \textit{in situ} shadow evaporation, which has been shown to improve atomic-scale disorder. We show how our design allows characterization of the spin stability and coherence over the full range of magnetic flux and gate voltage of an odd parity bias point. The spin relaxation and dephasing rates are comparable with the best devices previously reported, suggestive that surface atomic-scale disorder and QP poisoning are not linked to spin relaxation in InAs nanowires. Our design strategies are transferrable to novel materials platforms for Andreev qubits such as germanium and carbon.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Gatemon Qubit Revisited for Improved Reliability and Stability

The development of quantum circuits based on hybrid superconductor-semiconductor Josephson junctions holds promise for exploring their mesoscopic physics and for building novel superconducting devices. The gate-tunable superconducting transmon qubit (gatemon) is the paradigmatic example of such a superconducting circuit. However, gatemons typically suffer from unstable and hysteretic qubit frequencies with respect to the applied gate voltage and reduced coherence times. Here we develop methods for characterizing these challenges in gatemons and deploy these methods to compare the impact of shunt capacitor designs on gatemon performance. Our results indicate a strong frequency- and design-dependent behavior of the qubit stability, hysteresis, and dephasing times. Moreover, we achieve highly reliable tuning of the qubit frequency with 1 MHz precision over a range of several GHz, along with improved stability in grounded gatemons compared to gatemons with a floating capacitor design.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Fast universal control of a flux qubit via exponentially tunable wave-function overlap

Fast, high fidelity control and readout of protected superconducting qubits are fundamentally challenging due to their inherent insensitivity. We propose a flux qubit variation which enjoys a tunable level of protection against relaxation to resolve this outstanding issue. Our qubit design, the double-shunted flux qubit (DSFQ), realizes a generic double-well potential through its three junction ring geometry. One of the junctions is tunable, making it possible to control the barrier height and thus the level of protection. We analyze single- and two-qubit gate operations that rely on lowering the barrier. We show that this is a viable method that results in high fidelity gates as the non-computational states are not occupied during operations. Further, we show how the effective coupling to a readout resonator can be controlled by adjusting the externally applied flux while the DSFQ is protected from decaying into the readout resonator. Finally, we also study a double-loop gradiometric version of the DSFQ which is exponentially insensitive to variations in the global magnetic field, even when the loop areas are non-identical.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Scheme for parity-controlled multi-qubit gates with superconducting qubits

Multi-qubit parity measurements are at the core of many quantum error correction schemes. Extracting multi-qubit parity information typically involves using a sequence of multiple two-qubit gates. In this paper, we propose a superconducting circuit device with native support for multi-qubit parity-controlled gates (PCG). These are gates that perform rotations on a parity ancilla based on the multi-qubit parity operator of adjacent qubits, and can be directly used to perform multi-qubit parity measurements. The circuit consists of a set of concatenated Josephson ring modulators and effectively realizes a set of transmon-like qubits with strong longitudinal nearest-neighbor couplings. PCGs are implemented by applying microwave drives to the parity ancilla at specific frequencies. We investigate the scheme's performance with numerical simulation using realistic parameter choices and decoherence rates, and find that the device can perform four-qubit PCGs in 30 ns with process fidelity surpassing 99%. Furthermore, we study the effects of parameter disorder and spurious coupling between next-nearest neighboring qubits. Our results indicate that this approach to realizing PCGs constitute an interesting candidate for near-term quantum error correction experiments.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Lindblad Tomography of a Superconducting Quantum Processor

As progress is made towards the first generation of error-corrected quantum computers, robust characterization and validation protocols are required to assess the noise environments of physical quantum processors. While standard coherence metrics and characterization protocols such as T1 and T2, process tomography, and randomized benchmarking are now ubiquitous, these techniques provide only partial information about the dynamic multi-qubit loss channels responsible for processor errors, which can be described more fully by a Lindblad operator in the master equation formalism. Here, we introduce and experimentally demonstrate Lindblad tomography, a hardware-agnostic characterization protocol for tomographically reconstructing the Hamiltonian and Lindblad operators of a quantum noise environment from an ensemble of time-domain measurements. Performing Lindblad tomography on a small superconducting quantum processor, we show that this technique characterizes and accounts for state-preparation and measurement (SPAM) errors and allows one to place bounds on the fit to a Markovian model. Comparing the results of single- and two-qubit measurements on a superconducting quantum processor, we demonstrate that Lindblad tomography can also be used to identify and quantify sources of crosstalk on quantum processors, such as the presence of always-on qubit-qubit interactions.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Nonreciprocal devices based on voltage-tunable junctions

We propose to couple the flux degree of freedom of one mode with the charge degree of freedom of a second mode in a hybrid superconducting-semiconducting architecture. Nonreciprocity can arise in this architecture in the presence of external static magnetic fields alone. We leverage this property to engineer a passive on-chip gyrator, the fundamental two-port nonreciprocal device which can be used to build other nonreciprocal devices such as circulators. We analytically and numerically investigate how the nonlinearity of the interaction, circuit disorder and parasitic couplings affect the scattering response of the gyrator.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Entangling transmons with low-frequency protected superconducting qubits

Novel qubits with intrinsic noise protection constitute a promising route for improving the coherence of quantum information in superconducting circuits. However, many protected superconducting qubits exhibit relatively low transition frequencies, which could make their integration with conventional transmon circuits challenging. In this work, we propose and study a scheme for entangling a tunable transmon with a Cooper-pair parity-protected qubit, a paradigmatic example of a low-frequency protected qubit that stores quantum information in opposite Cooper-pair parity states on a superconducting island. By tuning the external flux on the transmon, we show that non-computational states can mediate a two-qubit entangling gate that preserves the Cooper-pair parity independent of the detailed pulse sequence. Interestingly, the entangling gate bears similarities to a controlled-phase gate in conventional transmon devices. Hence, our results suggest that standard high-precision gate calibration protocols could be repurposed for operating hybrid qubit devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Quantum Maxwell's Demon Assisted by Non-Markovian Effects

Maxwell's demon is the quintessential example of information control, which is necessary for designing quantum devices. In thermodynamics, the demon is an intelligent being who utilizes the entropic nature of information to sort excitations between reservoirs, thus lowering the total entropy. So far, implementations of Maxwell's demon have largely been limited to Markovian baths. In our work, we study the degree to which such a demon may be assisted by non-Markovian effects using a superconducting circuit platform. The setup is two baths connected by a demon-controlled qutrit interface, allowing the transfer of excitations only if the overall entropy of the two baths is lowered. The largest entropy reduction is achieved in a non-Markovian regime, and importantly, due to non-Markovian effects, the demon performance can be optimized through proper timing. Our results demonstrate that non-Markovian effects can be exploited to boost the information transfer rate in quantum Maxwell demons.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Charge-Noise Insensitive Chiral Photonic Interface for Waveguide Circuit QED

A chiral photonic interface is a quantum system that has different probabilities for emitting photons to the left and right. An on-chip compatible chiral interface is attractive for both fundamental studies of light-matter interactions and applications to quantum information processing. We propose such a chiral interface based on superconducting circuits, which has wide bandwidth, rich tunability, and high tolerance to fabrication variations. The proposed interface consists of a core that uses Cooper-pair boxes (CPBs) to break time-reversal symmetry, and two superconducting transmons that connect the core to a waveguide in the manner reminiscent of a ``giant atom.'' The transmons form a state decoupled from the core, akin to dark states of atomic physics, rendering the whole interface insensitive to the CPB charge noise. The proposed interface can be extended to realize a broadband fully passive on-chip circulator for microwave photons.

quant-ph↗