arXiv subjects

Mustafa Bakr

Publications and source records attributed to Mustafa Bakr.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

Characterization of Nanostructural Imperfections in Superconducting Quantum Circuits

Decoherence in superconducting quantum circuits, caused by loss mechanisms like material imperfections and two-level system (TLS) defects, remains a major obstacle to improving the performance of quantum devices. In this work, we present atomic-level characterization of cross-sections of a Josephson junction and a spiral resonator to assess the quality of critical interfaces. Employing scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and electron-energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), we identify structural imperfections associated with oxide layer formation and carbon-based contamination, and correlate these imperfections to the patterning and etching steps in the fabrication process and environmental exposure. These results suggest that TLS imperfections at critical interfaces significantly contribute to limiting device performance, emphasizing the need for an improved fabrication process.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Low Crosstalk in a Scalable Superconducting Quantum Lattice

Superconducting quantum circuits are a key platform for advancing quantum information processing and simulation. Scaling efforts currently encounter challenges such as Josephson-junction fabrication yield, design frequency targeting, and crosstalk arising both from spurious microwave modes and intrinsic interactions between qubits. We demonstrate a scalable 4x4 square lattice with low crosstalk, comprising 16 fixed-frequency transmon qubits with nearest-neighbor capacitive coupling that is implemented in a tileable, 3D-integrated circuit architecture with off-chip inductive shunting to mitigate spurious enclosure modes. We report on the design and comprehensive characterization, and show that our implementation achieves targeted device parameters with very low frequency spreads and simultaneous single-qubit gate errors across the device. Our results provide a promising pathway toward a scalable, low-crosstalk superconducting lattice topology with high qubit connectivity for quantum error correction and simulation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Superconducting qubit readout enhanced by path signature

Quantum non-demolition measurement plays an essential role in quantum technology, crucial for quantum error correction, metrology, and sensing. Conventionally, the qubit state is classified from the raw or integrated time-domain measurement record. Here, we demonstrate a method to enhance the assignment fidelity of the readout by considering the "path signature" of this measurement record, where the path signature is a mathematical tool for analyzing stochastic time series. We evaluate this approach across five different hardware setups, including those with and without readout multiplexing and parametric amplifiers, and demonstrate a significant improvement in assignment fidelity across all setups. Moreover, we show that the path signature of the measurement record provides an expressive feature set that can be used to detect and classify state transitions that occurred during the measurement, improving the prediction of the qubit state at the end of the measurement. This method has the potential to become a foundational tool for quantum technology.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Properties of Building Blocks Comprising Strongly Interacting Posts and Their Consideration in Advanced Coaxial Filter Designs

Building blocks containing strongly coupled posts offer new possibilities for advanced coaxial (comb-line) filter designs. Equivalent circuits based on the individual resonances of the posts cannot be used to reliably describe the behavior of these structures because of the strong coupling between the posts. Instead, sets of electromagnetic (EM) resonances that satisfy the boundary conditions are used. The resulting equivalent circuit is either a fully transversal circuit or contains locally transversal sub-circuits depending on the strength of the coupling between the cascaded blocks. The validity of similarity transformations that result in topologies with unusual strong coupling coefficients is questionable despite the fact that they yield the correct frequency response. Such coupling matrices obscure the physics of the problem and fail to predict the correct behavior of filtering structures. However, topologies that match the layout of the posts can be used to optimize the filter in connection with a full-wave solver or measurement. Examples of dual-post and triple-post units are used to illustrate the key findings. The basic knowledge of the real functionality of these special resonator configurations allows their consideration in advanced filter implementations by well-established classic design methods, without limitation by the design approach. This is demonstrated by an example of a 2-order in-line filter implementation providing one transmission zero by using the combination of single and transverse dual-post resonators. This fundamental understanding of the special properties provides the pre-requisite for a variety of novel filter solutions.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2025

Theory of Azimuthally Propagating Electromagnetic Waves in Cylindrical Cavities

The paper presents a detailed study of azimuthally propagating electromagnetic waves in cylindrical metallic cavities with circular cross section. Dispersion characteristics of these waves are determined from Maxwell's equations. Solutions are grouped into branches that account for all known results that are obtained from axial propagation. It is reported that the lowest TE mode starts propagating in the azimuthal direction at a frequency that depends only on the height of the cavity and may be much lower than the cutoff of the TE mode in the axial direction. Universal curves allow the determination of resonant frequencies and field distribution of TE and TM modes in circular cavities containing wedges of arbitrary angles and baffles, with no additional computation. It is shown that the frequency dependence of the propagation constant of a given branch determines all the resonant frequencies of the branch for arbitrary boundary conditions in the azimuthal direction. It is argued that propagation-based models, when applicable, are more accurate than resonance-based models. The lowest TE branch starts at a non-physical resonance. Applications to microwave dual-mode filter design are discussed briefly.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Multiplexed Readout of Superconducting Qubits Using a 3D Re-entrant Cavity Filter

Hardware efficient methods for high fidelity quantum state measurements are crucial for superconducting qubit experiments, as qubit numbers grow and feedback and state reset begin to be employed for quantum error correction. We present a 3D re-entrant cavity filter designed for frequency-multiplexed readout of superconducting qubits. The cavity filter is situated out of the plane of the qubit circuit and capacitively couples to an array of on-chip readout resonators in a manner that can scale to large qubit arrays. The re-entrant cavity functions as a large-linewidth bandpass filter with intrinsic Purcell filtering. We demonstrate the concept with a four-qubit multiplexed device.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Complementing the transmon by integrating a geometric shunt inductor

We realize a single-Josephson-junction transmon qubit shunted by a simple geometric inductor. We couple it capacitively to a conventional transmon and show that the ZZ interaction between the two qubits is completely suppressed when they are flux-biased to have opposite-sign anharmonicities. Away from the flux sweet spot of the inductively-shunted transmon, we demonstrate fast two-qubit interactions using first-order sideband transitions. The simplicity of this two-qubit-species circuit makes it promising for building large lattices of superconducting qubits with low coherent error and a rich gate set.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Efficient characterization of qudit logical gates with gate set tomography using an error-free Virtual-Z-gate model

Gate-set tomography (GST) characterizes the process matrix of quantum logic gates, along with measurement and state preparation errors in quantum processors. GST typically requires extensive data collection and significant computational resources for model estimation. We propose a more efficient GST approach for qudits, utilizing the qudit Hadamard and virtual Z gates to construct fiducials while assuming virtual Z gates are error-free. Our method reduces the computational costs of estimating characterization results, making GST more practical at scale. We experimentally demonstrate the applicability of this approach on a superconducting transmon qutrit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Emulating two qubits with a four-level transmon qudit for variational quantum algorithms

Using quantum systems with more than two levels, or qudits, can scale the computation space of quantum processors more efficiently than using qubits, which may offer an easier physical implementation for larger Hilbert spaces. However, individual qudits may exhibit larger noise, and algorithms designed for qubits require to be recompiled to qudit algorithms for execution. In this work, we implemented a two-qubit emulator using a 4-level superconducting transmon qudit for variational quantum algorithm applications and analyzed its noise model. The major source of error for the variational algorithm was readout misclassification error and amplitude damping. To improve the accuracy of the results, we applied error-mitigation techniques to reduce the effects of the misclassification and qudit decay event. The final predicted energy value is within the range of chemical accuracy. Our work demonstrates that qudits are a practical alternative to qubits for variational algorithms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Encoding optimization for quantum machine learning demonstrated on a superconducting transmon qutrit

Qutrits, three-level quantum systems, have the advantage of potentially requiring fewer components than the typically used two-level qubits to construct equivalent quantum circuits. This work investigates the potential of qutrit parametric circuits in machine learning classification applications. We propose and evaluate different data-encoding schemes for qutrits, and find that the classification accuracy varies significantly depending on the used encoding. We therefore propose a training method for encoding optimization that allows to consistently achieve high classification accuracy. Our theoretical analysis and numerical simulations indicate that the qutrit classifier can achieve high classification accuracy using fewer components than a comparable qubit system. We showcase the qutrit classification using the optimized encoding method on superconducting transmon qutrits, demonstrating the practicality of the proposed method on noisy hardware. Our work demonstrates high-precision ternary classification using fewer circuit elements, establishing qutrit parametric quantum circuits as a viable and efficient tool for quantum machine learning applications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Singular Azimuthally Propagating Electromagnetic Fields

We study the characteristics of azimuthally propagating electromagnetic fields in a cylindrical cavity. It is found that under certain conditions, the transverse components of the electromagnetic field are singular at the center of the cavity but the corresponding electromagnetic field remains of finite energy. The solutions are arranged in branches each of which starts from a root of $J_1(x)=0$ for the TE modes and a root of $J_0(x)=0$ for the TM modes. The lowest (dominant) branch starts from a resonance that corresponds to the solution $x=0$ of $J_1(x)=0$. Its energy has a logarithmic singularity in a lossless structure. The singular solutions with finite energy can be observed experimentally by forcing them to resonate in a cavity with inserted metallic wedges. They can also be excited by transient sources. The singular electromagnetic field of these waves is strong enough to ionize the air. Whether these transient singular fields can initiate lightning, a phenomenon that is still not understood, is a very interesting question. It is also worth investigating whether the lowest resonance is excited in violently energetic cosmological phenomena such as cosmic jets.

physics.class-ph↗

arXiv2021

High Coherence in a Tileable 3D Integrated Superconducting Circuit Architecture

We report high qubit coherence as well as low crosstalk and single-qubit gate errors in a superconducting circuit architecture that promises to be tileable to 2D lattices of qubits. The architecture integrates an inductively shunted cavity enclosure into a design featuring non-galvanic out-of-plane control wiring and qubits and resonators fabricated on opposing sides of a substrate. The proof-of-principle device features four uncoupled transmon qubits and exhibits average energy relaxation times $T_1=149(38)~μ$s, pure echoed dephasing times $T_{ϕ,e}=189(34)~μ$s, and single-qubit gate fidelities $F=99.982(4)\%$ as measured by simultaneous randomized benchmarking. The 3D integrated nature of the control wiring means that qubits will remain addressable as the architecture is tiled to form larger qubit lattices. Band structure simulations are used to predict that the tiled enclosure will still provide a clean electromagnetic environment to enclosed qubits at arbitrary scale.

quant-ph↗