arXiv subjects

Pan Zheng

Publications and source records attributed to Pan Zheng.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Demonstrating advantages of dynamic quantum circuits on a hybrid superconducting qubit-cavity processor

Dynamic quantum circuits (DQCs) provide a hardware-efficient route to quantum computing by reducing physical-qubit overhead and compressing circuit topology through mid-circuit measurements, qubit reset and reuse, and classical feed-forward control. Here, we demonstrate the advantages of DQCs on a single hybrid superconducting qubit-cavity processor by implementing a hierarchy of algorithms with increasing complexity. This hybrid architecture consists of a high-dimensional cavity qudit serving as the computational register and a dispersively coupled superconducting transmon ancilla that is repeatedly measured, reset, and reused to enable dynamic control. Using this device, we implement a 10-bit Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm with an average success probability of 82%, surpassing state-of-the-art dynamic and static implementations in both scale and performance; an 8-bit quantum phase-estimation protocol with estimation errors below 10-3; and the first dynamic-circuit implementation of Shor's algorithm on a superconducting platform, factoring 15 over all coprime bases with squared statistical overlap values above 99.8%. These results provide concrete benchmarks for future DQC implementations and highlight the versatile advantages of DQCs with the hybrid qubit-qudit architecture, establishing it as a promising route toward scalable, programmable quantum computation.

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arXiv2026

A biased-erasure cavity qubit with hardware-efficient quantum error detection

Erasure qubits are beneficial for quantum error correction due to their relaxed threshold requirements. While dual-rail erasure qubits have been demonstrated with a strong error hierarchy in circuit quantum electrodynamics, biased-erasure qubits -- where erasures originate predominantly from one logical basis state -- offer further advantages. Here, we realize a hardware-efficient biased-erasure qubit encoded in the vacuum and two-photon Fock states of a single microwave cavity. The qubit exhibits an erasure bias ratio of over 265. By using a transmon ancilla for logical measurements and mid-circuit erasure detections, we achieve logical state assignment errors below 1% and convert over 99.3% leakage errors into detected erasures. After postselection against erasures, we achieve effective logical relaxation and dephasing rates of $(6.2~\mathrm{ms})^{-1}$ and $(3.1~\mathrm{ms})^{-1}$, respectively, which exceed the erasure error rate by factors of 31 and 15, establishing a strong error hierarchy within the logical subspace. These postselected error rates indicate a coherence gain of about 6.0 beyond the break-even point set by the best physical qubit encoded in the two lowest Fock states in the cavity. Moreover, randomized benchmarking with interleaved erasure detections reveals a residual logical gate error of 0.29%. This work establishes a compact and hardware-efficient platform for biased-erasure qubits, promising concatenations into outer-level stabilizer codes toward fault-tolerant quantum computation.

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arXiv2025

Autonomous quantum error correction beyond break-even and its metrological application

The ability to extend the lifetime of a logical qubit beyond that of the best physical qubit available within the same system, i.e., the break-even point, is a prerequisite for building practical quantum computers. So far, this point has been exceeded through active quantum error correction (QEC) protocols, where a logical error is corrected by measuring its syndrome and then performing an adaptive correcting operation. Autonomous QEC (AQEC), without the need for such resource-consuming measurement-feedback control, has been demonstrated in several experiments, but none of which has unambiguously reached the break-even point. Here, we present an unambiguous demonstration of beyond-break-even AQEC in a circuit quantum electrodynamics system, where a photonic logical qubit encoded in a superconducting microwave cavity is protected against photon loss through autonomous error correction, enabled by engineered dissipation. Under the AQEC protection, the logical qubit achieves a lifetime surpassing that of the best physical qubit available in the system by 18\%. We further employ this AQEC protocol to enhance the precision for measuring a slight frequency shift, achieving a metrological gain of 6.3 dB over that using the most robust Fock-state superposition. These results illustrate that the demonstrated AQEC procedure not only represents a crucial step towards fault-tolerant quantum computation but also offers advantages for building robust quantum sensors.

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arXiv2025

Quantum-Enhanced Dark Matter Search Using Cat States

Quantum metrology has recently emerged as a powerful approach for dark matter (DM) searches, particularly using nonclassical bosonic states in microwave cavities that are sensitive to weak signals. Nonclassical cat states - macroscopic superpositions of coherent states featuring sub-Planck interference structures - offer promising advantages for high-precision measurements. However, their practical utility in DM search remains unexplored. Here, we report the first experimental application of four-component cat states within a high-quality superconducting microwave cavity to search for dark photons, a potential DM candidate. We demonstrate an 8.1-fold enhancement in the signal photon rate and constrain the dark photon kinetic mixing angle to an unprecedented $\epsilon < 7.32 \times 10^{-16}$ near 6.44~GHz (26.6~$\mu$eV). By employing a parametric sideband drive to actively tune the cavity frequency, we achieve dark photon searches and background subtraction across multiple frequency bins, yielding a sensitivity at the $10^{-16}$ level within a 100~kHz bandwidth. Our cat-assisted DM (CaD) search and frequency-scanning techniques demonstrate substantial improvements over previous results, promising potential implications in quantum-enhanced searches for new physics.

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arXiv2025

Quantum squeezing amplification with a weak Kerr nonlinear oscillator

Quantum squeezed states, with reduced quantum noise, have been widely utilized in quantum sensing and quantum error correction applications. However, generating and manipulating these nonclassical states with a large squeezing degree typically requires strong nonlinearity, which inevitably induces additional decoherence that diminishes the overall performance. Here, we demonstrate the generation and amplification of squeezed states in a superconducting microwave cavity with weak Kerr nonlinearity. By subtly engineering an off-resonant microwave drive, we observe cyclic dynamics of the quantum squeezing evolution for various Fock states |N> with N up to 6 in displaced frame of the cavity. Furthermore, we deterministically realize quantum squeezing amplification by alternately displacing the Kerr oscillator using the Trotterization technique, achieving a maximum squeezing degree of 14.6 dB and squeezing rate of 0.28 MHz. Our hardware-efficient displacement-enhanced squeezing operations provide an alternative pathway for generating large squeezed states, promising potential applications in quantum-enhanced sensing and quantum information processing.

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arXiv2023

Autonomous Stabilization of Fock States in an Oscillator against Multiphoton Losses

Fock states with a well-defined number of photons in an oscillator have shown a wide range of applications in quantum information science. Nonetheless, their usefulness has been marred by single and multiple photon losses due to unavoidable environment-induced dissipation. Though several dissipation engineering methods have been developed to counteract the leading single-photon loss error, averting multiple photon losses remains elusive. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a dissipation engineering method that autonomously stabilizes multi-photon Fock states against losses of multiple photons using a cascaded selective photon-addition operation in a superconducting quantum circuit. Through measuring the photon-number populations and Wigner tomography of the oscillator states, we observe a prolonged preservation of nonclassical Wigner negativities for the stabilized Fock states $\vert N\rangle$ with $N=1,2,3$ for a duration of about 10 ms. Furthermore, the dissipation engineering method demonstrated here also facilitates the implementation of a non-unitary operation for resetting a binomially-encoded logical qubit. These results highlight potential applications in error-correctable quantum information processing against multi-photon-loss errors.

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arXiv2023

Quantum-enhanced metrology with large Fock states

Quantum metrology uses non-classical states, such as Fock states with a specific number of photons, to achieve an advantage over classical sensing methods. Typically, quantum metrological performance can be enhanced by increasing the involved excitation numbers, for example, by using large photon-number Fock states. However, manipulating these states and demonstrating a quantum metrological advantage is experimentally challenging. Here we present an efficient method for generating large Fock states approaching 100 photons within a superconducting microwave cavity through the development of a programmable photon number filter. Using these states in displacement and phase measurements, we demonstrate quantum-enhanced metrology approaching the Heisenberg scaling for 40-photon Fock states and achieve a maximum metrological gain of up to 14.8 dB, highlighting the metrological advantages of large Fock states. Our study could be readily extended to mechanical and optical systems, promising potential applications in weak force detection and dark matter searches.

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