arXiv subjects

P. Bertet

Publications and source records attributed to P. Bertet.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Coherent manipulation of Andreev states in superconducting atomic contacts

Coherent control of quantum states has been demonstrated in a variety of superconducting devices. In all these devices, the variables that are manipulated are collective electromagnetic degrees of freedom: charge, superconducting phase, or flux. Here, we demonstrate the coherent manipulation of a quantum system based on Andreev bound states, which are microscopic quasiparticle states inherent to superconducting weak links. Using a circuit quantum electrodynamics setup we perform single-shot readout of this "Andreev qubit". We determine its excited state lifetime and coherence time to be in the microsecond range. Quantum jumps and parity switchings are observed in continuous measurements. In addition to possible quantum information applications, such Andreev qubits are a testbed for the physics of single elementary excitations in superconductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Controlling spin relaxation with a cavity

Spontaneous emission of radiation is one of the fundamental mechanisms by which an excited quantum system returns to equilibrium. For spins, however, spontaneous emission is generally negligible compared to other non-radiative relaxation processes because of the weak coupling between the magnetic dipole and the electromagnetic field. In 1946, Purcell realized that the spontaneous emission rate can be strongly enhanced by placing the quantum system in a resonant cavity -an effect which has since been used extensively to control the lifetime of atoms and semiconducting heterostructures coupled to microwave or optical cavities, underpinning single-photon sources. Here we report the first application of these ideas to spins in solids. By coupling donor spins in silicon to a superconducting microwave cavity of high quality factor and small mode volume, we reach for the first time the regime where spontaneous emission constitutes the dominant spin relaxation mechanism. The relaxation rate is increased by three orders of magnitude when the spins are tuned to the cavity resonance, showing that energy relaxation can be engineered and controlled on-demand. Our results provide a novel and general way to initialise spin systems into their ground state, with applications in magnetic resonance and quantum information processing. They also demonstrate that, contrary to popular belief, the coupling between the magnetic dipole of a spin and the electromagnetic field can be enhanced up to the point where quantum fluctuations have a dramatic effect on the spin dynamics; as such our work represents an important step towards the coherent magnetic coupling of individual spins to microwave photons.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Reaching the quantum limit of sensitivity in electron spin resonance

We report pulsed electron-spin resonance (ESR) measurements on an ensemble of Bismuth donors in Silicon cooled at 10mK in a dilution refrigerator. Using a Josephson parametric microwave amplifier combined with high-quality factor superconducting micro-resonators cooled at millikelvin temperatures, we improve the state-of-the-art sensitivity of inductive ESR detection by nearly 4 orders of magnitude. We demonstrate the detection of 1700 bismuth donor spins in silicon within a single Hahn echo with unit signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio, reduced to just 150 spins by averaging a single Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequence. This unprecedented sensitivity reaches the limit set by quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field instead of thermal or technical noise, which constitutes a novel regime for magnetic resonance.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Storage and retrieval of microwave fields at the single-photon level in a spin ensemble

We report the storage of microwave pulses at the single-photon level in a spin-ensemble memory consisting of $10^{10}$ NV centers in a diamond crystal coupled to a superconducting LC resonator. The energy of the signal, retrieved $100\, μ\mathrm{s}$ later by spin-echo techniques, reaches $0.3\%$ of the energy absorbed by the spins, and this storage efficiency is quantitatively accounted for by simulations. This figure of merit is sufficient to envision first implementations of a quantum memory for superconducting qubits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Quantum technologies with hybrid systems

An extensively pursued current direction of research in physics aims at the development of practical technologies that exploit the effects of quantum mechanics. As part of this ongoing effort, devices for information processing, secure communication and high-precision sensing are being implemented with diverse systems, ranging from photons, atoms and spins to mesoscopic superconducting and nanomechanical structures. Their physical properties make some of these systems better suited than others for specific tasks; thus, photons are well suited for transmitting quantum information, weakly interacting spins can serve as long-lived quantum memories, and superconducting elements can rapidly process information encoded in their quantum states. A central goal of the envisaged quantum technologies is to develop devices that can simultaneously perform several of these tasks, namely, reliably store, process, and transmit quantum information. Hybrid quantum systems composed of different physical components with complementary functionalities may provide precisely such multi-tasking capabilities. This article reviews some of the driving theoretical ideas and first experimental realizations of hybrid quantum systems and the opportunities and the challenges they present and offers a glance at the near- and long-term perspectives of this fascinating and rapidly expanding field.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Multiplexed Readout of Transmon Qubits with Josephson Bifurcation Amplifiers

Achieving individual qubit readout is a major challenge in the development of scalable superconducting quantum processors. We have implemented the multiplexed readout of a four transmon qubit circuit using non-linear resonators operated as Josephson bifurcation amplifiers. We demonstrate the simultaneous measurement of Rabi oscillations of the four transmons. We find that multiplexed Josephson bifurcation is a high-fidelity readout method, the scalability of which is not limited by the need of a large bandwidth nearly quantum-limited amplifier as is the case with linear readout resonators.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

High-gain weakly nonlinear flux-modulated Josephson parametric amplifier using a SQUID-array

We have developed and measured a high-gain quantum-limited microwave parametric amplifier based on a superconducting lumped LC resonator with the inductor L including an array of 8 superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). This amplifier is parametrically pumped by modulating the flux threading the SQUIDs at twice the resonator frequency. Around 5 GHz, a maximum gain of 31 dB, a product amplitude-gain x bandwidth above 60 MHz, and a 1 dB compression point of -123 dBm at 20 dB gain are obtained in the non-degenerate mode of operation. Phase sensitive amplification-deamplification is also measured in the degenerate mode and yields a maximum gain of 37 dB. The compression point obtained is 18 dB above what would be obtained with a single SQUID of the same inductance, due to the smaller nonlinearity of the SQUID array.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Multi-mode storage and retrieval of microwave fields in a spin ensemble

A quantum memory at microwave frequencies, able to store the state of multiple superconducting qubits for long times, is a key element for quantum information processing. Electronic and nuclear spins are natural candidates for the storage medium as their coherence time can be well above one second. Benefiting from these long coherence times requires to apply the refocusing techniques used in magnetic resonance, a major challenge in the context of hybrid quantum circuits. Here we report the first implementation of such a scheme, using ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond coupled to a superconducting resonator, in a setup compatible with superconducting qubit technology. We implement the active reset of the NV spins into their ground state by optical pumping and their refocusing by Hahn echo sequences. This enables the storage of multiple microwave pulses at the picoWatt level and their retrieval after up to $35 μ$s, a three orders of magnitude improvement compared to previous experiments.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Superconducting qubit as a probe of quantum fluctuations in a nonlinear resonator

In addition to their central role in quantum information processing, qubits have proven to be useful tools in a range of other applications such as enhanced quantum sensing and as spectrometers of quantum noise. Here we show that a superconducting qubit strongly coupled to a nonlinear resonator can act as a probe of quantum fluctuations of the intra-resonator field. Building on previous work [M. Boissoneault et al. Phys. Rev. A 85, 022305 (2012)], we derive an effective master equation for the qubit which takes into account squeezing of the resonator field. We show how sidebands in the qubit excitation spectrum that are predicted by this model can reveal information about squeezing and quantum heating. The main results of this paper have already been successfully compared to experimental data [F. R. Ong et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 047001 (2013)] and we present here the details of the derivations.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Quantum Heating of a nonlinear resonator probed by a superconducting qubit

We measure the quantum fluctuations of a pumped nonlinear resonator, using a superconducting artificial atom as an in-situ probe. The qubit excitation spectrum gives access to the frequency and temperature of the intracavity field fluctuations. These are found to be in agreement with theoretical predictions; in particular we experimentally observe the phenomenon of quantum heating.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2012

Electron spin resonance detected by a superconducting qubit

A new method for detecting the magnetic resonance of electronic spins at low temperature is demonstrated. It consists in measuring the signal emitted by the spins with a superconducting qubit that acts as a single-microwave-photon detector, resulting in an enhanced sensitivity. We implement this new type of electron-spin resonance spectroscopy using a hybrid quantum circuit in which a transmon qubit is coupled to a spin ensemble consisting of NV centers in diamond. With this setup we measure the NV center absorption spectrum at 30mK at an excitation level of \thicksim15\,μ_{B} out of an ensemble of 10^{11} spins.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Circuit quantum electrodynamics with a nonlinear resonator

One of the most studied model systems in quantum optics is a two-level atom strongly coupled to a single mode of the electromagnetic field stored in a cavity, a research field named cavity quantum electrodynamics or CQED. CQED has recently received renewed attention due to its implementation with superconducting artificial atoms and coplanar resonators in the so-called circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architecture. In cQED, the couplings can be much stronger than in CQED due to the design flexibility of superconducting circuits and to the enhanced field confinement in one-dimensional cavities. This enabled the realization of fundamental quantum physics and quantum information processing experiments with a degree of control comparable to that obtained in CQED. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the situation where the resonator to which the atom is coupled is made nonlinear with a Kerr-type nonlinearity, causing its energy levels to be nonequidistant. The system is then described by a nonlinear Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. This considerably enriches the physics since a pumped nonlinear resonator displays bistability, parametric amplification, and squeezing. The interplay of strong coupling and these nonlinear effects constitutes a novel model system for quantum optics that can be implemented experimentally with superconducting circuits. This chapter is organized as follows. In a first section we present the system consisting of a superconducting Kerr nonlinear resonator strongly coupled to a transmon qubit. In the second section, we describe the response of the sole nonlinear resonator to an external drive. In the third section, we show how the resonator bistability can be used to perform a high-fidelity readout of the transmon qubit. In the last section, we investigate the quantum backaction exerted by the intracavity field on the qubit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Backaction of a driven nonlinear resonator on a superconducting qubit

We study the backaction of a driven nonlinear resonator on a multi-level superconducting qubit. Using unitary transformations on the multi-level Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian and quantum optics master equation, we derive an analytical model that goes beyond linear response theory. Within the limits of validity of the model, we obtain quantitative agreement with experimental and numerical data, both in the bifurcation and in the parametric amplification regimes of the nonlinear resonator. We show in particular that the measurement-induced dephasing rate of the qubit can be rather small at high drive power. This is in contrast to measurement with a linear resonator where this rate increases with the drive power. Finally, we show that, for typical parameters of circuit quantum electrodynamics, correctly describing measurement-induced dephasing requires a model going beyond linear response theory, such as the one presented here.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Demonstrating quantum speed-up in a superconducting two-qubit processor

We operate a superconducting quantum processor consisting of two tunable transmon qubits coupled by a swapping interaction, and equipped with non destructive single-shot readout of the two qubits. With this processor, we run the Grover search algorithm among four objects and find that the correct answer is retrieved after a single run with a success probability between 0.52 and 0.67, significantly larger than the 0.25 achieved with a classical algorithm. This constitutes a proof-of-concept for the quantum speed-up of electrical quantum processors.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Hybrid quantum circuit with a superconducting qubit coupled to a spin ensemble

We report the experimental realization of a hybrid quantum circuit combining a superconducting qubit and an ensemble of electronic spins. The qubit, of the transmon type, is coherently coupled to the spin ensemble consisting of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in a diamond crystal via a frequency-tunable superconducting resonator acting as a quantum bus. Using this circuit, we prepare arbitrary superpositions of the qubit states that we store into collective excitations of the spin ensemble and retrieve back later on into the qubit. These results constitute a first proof of concept of spin-ensemble based quantum memory for superconducting qubits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2011

Characterization of a two-transmon processor with individual single-shot qubit readout

We report the characterization of a two-qubit processor implemented with two capacitively coupled tunable superconducting qubits of the transmon type, each qubit having its own non-destructive single-shot readout. The fixed capacitive coupling yields the \sqrt{iSWAP} two-qubit gate for a suitable interaction time. We reconstruct by state tomography the coherent dynamics of the two-bit register as a function of the interaction time, observe a violation of the Bell inequality by 22 standard deviations after correcting readout errors, and measure by quantum process tomography a gate fidelity of 90%.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Storage and Retrieval of a Microwave Field in a Spin Ensemble

We report the storage and retrieval of a small microwave field from a superconducting resonator into collective excitations of a spin ensemble. The spins are nitrogen-vacancy centers in a diamond crystal. The storage time of the order of 30 ns is limited by inhomogeneous broadening of the spin ensemble.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Strongly coupling a cavity to inhomogeneous ensembles of emitters : potential for long lived solid-state quantum memories

We investigate theoretically the coupling of a cavity mode to a continuous distribution of emitters. We discuss the influence of the emitters inhomogeneous broadening on the existence and on the coherence properties of the polaritonic peaks. We find that their coherence depends crucially on the shape of the distribution and not only on its width. Under certain conditions the coupling to the cavity protects the polaritonic states from inhomogeneous broadening, resulting in a longer storage time for a quantum memory based on emitters ensembles. When two different ensembles of emitters are coupled to the resonator, they support a peculiar collective dark state, also very attractive for the storage of quantum information.

quant-ph↗