arXiv subjects

Simone Gasparinetti

Publications and source records attributed to Simone Gasparinetti.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Kerr nonlinearity and three-wave mixing in superconducting resonators hosting Al-InAs weak links

Nonlinear microwave resonators are a versatile tool in quantum information processing, enabling parametric amplification, continuous variable quantum computing, and engineered mode interactions. Many of these applications especially benefit from cubic nonlinearities enabling three-wave mixing; at the same time, they are limited by quartic nonlinearities giving rise to undesired Kerr effects. A recurrent challenge is therefore to engineer resonators with a finite cubic nonlinearity while suppressing quartic terms. Here, we investigate a superconducting resonator hosting two weak links fabricated from an aluminum-capped indium arsenide nanowire. We characterize the Kerr nonlinearity as a function of magnetic flux and gate bias, showing that it can be tuned to zero with either control parameter. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrate three-wave mixing in a semiconductor-superconductor hybrid device, establishing nonzero cubic nonlinearity. An effective model based on Andreev bound states qualitatively captures the observed trends. Our results validate semiconductor-superconductor hybrid devices as a promising platform for tunable nonlinear superconducting circuits, with applications in parametric amplification, quantum control of bosonic modes, and engineering interactions between microwave modes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Always-on, highly efficient microwave photon detector based on a superconducting artificial molecule

Efficient detection of single microwave photons is a key capability for emerging quantum technologies. Yet, it remains far less developed than its optical domain counterpart. Realizing detectors that simultaneously achieve high efficiency, low dark counts, and continuous operation has proved challenging. Existing detectors operate cyclically, forcing a trade-off between efficiency and duty cycle. Here, we demonstrate a continuously operated microwave single-photon detector based on a superconducting artificial molecule. In our scheme, an incoming photon is captured by a bright state of the molecule and then transferred to a long-lived dark state via a driven-dissipative process. Photon ``clicks'' are revealed as quantum jumps in the continuously monitored dark state. We observe a cyclic detection efficiency of $0.73$, and a continuous detection efficiency of $0.47$ over a $5\,\mathrm{MHz}$ instantaneous bandwidth, with a $1\,\mu\mathrm{s}$ temporal resolution and a $15\,\mu\mathrm{s}$ dead time. By overcoming the trade-off between efficiency and duty cycle, this approach establishes continuous microwave photon detection for quantum sensing, quantum thermodynamics, and fundamental physics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

In situ calibration of microwave attenuation and gain using a cryogenic on-chip attenuator

Accurate in situ calibration of microwave attenuation and amplification-chain noise is essential for superconducting quantum circuits. We demonstrate a compact, self-calibrating cryogenic noise source based on an on-chip chromium attenuator that can be resistively heated with nanowatt-level power and directly integrated into a coaxial microwave line at the mixing-chamber stage. By comparing Johnson-Nyquist noise generated by Joule and microwave heating, measured through the amplification chain, the attenuation of the input line, and hence the gain of the chain, is determined without requiring knowledge of the attenuator temperature. The device exhibits millisecond-scale response times and negligible heating of the cryostat base plate. Using this approach, we determine the gain and added noise of a cryogenic amplification chain over the 4-8 GHz band. Our results provide a simple and accurate method to characterize near-quantum-limited parametric amplifiers used in superconducting-qubit readout.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Real-time detection of correlated quasiparticle tunneling events in a multi-qubit superconducting device

Quasiparticle tunneling events are a source of decoherence and correlated errors in superconducting circuits. Understanding and ultimately mitigating these errors calls for real-time detection of quasiparticle tunneling events on individual devices. In this work, we simultaneously detect quasiparticle tunneling events in two co-housed, charge-sensitive transmons coupled to a common waveguide. We measure background quasiparticle tunneling rates at the single-hertz level, with temporal resolution of tens of microseconds. Using time-tagged coincidence analysis, we show that individual events are uncorrelated across devices, whereas burst episodes occur about once per minute and are largely correlated. These bursts have a characteristic lifetime of 7 ms and induce a thousand-fold increase in the quasiparticle tunneling rate across both devices. In addition, we identify a rarer subset of bursts which are accompanied by a shift in the offset charge, at approximately one event per hour. Our results establish a practical and extensible method to identify quasiparticle bursts in superconducting circuits, as well as their correlations and spatial structure, advancing routes to suppress correlated errors in superconducting quantum processors.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Proposals for experimentally realizing quantum-autonomous gates

Autonomous quantum machines (AQMs) execute tasks without requiring time-dependent external control. Motivations for AQMs include the restrictions imposed by classical control on quantum machines' coherence times and geometries. Most AQM work is theoretical and abstract; yet an experiment recently demonstrated AQMs' usefulness in qubit reset, crucial to quantum computing. To further reduce quantum computing's classical control, we propose realizations of quantum-autonomous gates on three platforms: Rydberg atoms, trapped ions, and superconducting qubits. First, we show that a Rydberg-blockade interaction or an ultrafast transition can quantum-autonomously effect entangling gates on Rydberg atoms. Passive lasers control these gates quantum-autonomously. One can perform $Z$ or entangling gates on trapped ions quantum-autonomously, by sculpting a linear Paul trap or leveraging a ring trap. Finally, circuit quantum electrodynamics can enable quantum-autonomous $Z$ and $XY$ gates on superconducting qubits. The gates can serve as building blocks for (fully or partially) quantum-autonomous circuits, which may reduce classical-control burdens.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Effective Hamiltonian for an off-resonantly driven qubit-cavity system

Accurate modeling of driven light-matter interactions is essential for quantum technologies, where natural and synthetic atoms are used to store and process quantum information, mediate interactions between bosonic modes, and enable nonlinear operations. In systems subject to multi-tone drives, however, the theoretical description becomes challenging and existing models cannot quantitatively reproduce the experimental data. Here, we derive an effective Hamiltonian that retains slowly rotating terms, providing a general framework for accurately describing driven dynamics across platforms. As a concrete application, we validate the theory in circuit QED, where it quantitatively reproduces experimentally measured ac Stark shifts and captures key interactions such as two-mode squeezing and beam-splitting. Our results establish a broadly applicable tool to engineer driven interactions in quantum information processing platforms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Overhead in Quantum Circuits with Time-Multiplexed Qubit Control

When scaling up quantum processors in a cryogenic environment, it is desirable to limit the number of qubit drive lines going into the cryostat, since fewer lines makes cooling of the system more manageable and the need for complicated electronics setups is reduced. However, although time multiplexing of qubit control enables using just a few drive lines to steer many qubits, it comes with a trade-off: fewer drive lines means fewer qubits can be controlled in parallel, which leads to an overhead in the execution time for quantum algorithms. In this article, we quantify this trade-off through numerical and analytical investigations. For standard quantum processor layouts and typical gate times, we show that the trade-off is favorable for many common quantum algorithms $\unicode{x2014}$ the number of drive lines can be significantly reduced without introducing much overhead. Specifically, we show that couplers for two-qubit gates can be grouped on common drive lines without any overhead up to a limit set by the connectivity of the qubits. For single-qubit gates, we find that the serialization overhead generally scales only logarithmically in the number of qubits sharing a drive line. These results are promising for the continued progress towards large-scale quantum computers.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Automated, physics-guided, multi-parameter design optimization for superconducting quantum devices

The design of nonlinear superconducting quantum circuits often relies on time-consuming iterative electromagnetic simulations requiring manual intervention. These interventions entail, for example, adjusting design variables such as resonator lengths or Josephson junction energies to meet target parameters such as mode frequencies, decay rates, and coupling strengths. Here, we present a method to efficiently automate the optimization of superconducting circuits, which significantly reduces the need for manual intervention. The method's efficiency arises from user-defined, physics-informed, nonlinear models that guide parameter updates toward the desired targets. Additionally, we provide a full implementation of our optimization method as an open-source Python package, QDesignOptimizer. The package automates the design workflow by combining high-accuracy electromagnetic simulations in Ansys HFSS and Energy Participation Ratio (pyEPR) analysis integrated with the design tool Qiskit-Metal. Our implementation supports modular and flexible subsystem-level analysis and is easily extensible to optimize for additional parameters. The method is not specific to superconducting circuits; as such, it can be applied to a range of nonlinear optimization problems across science and technology.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Experimental observation of multimode quantum phase transitions in a superconducting Bose-Hubbard simulator

The study of phase transitions and critical phenomena arising in quantum driven-dissipative systems, and whether a correspondence can be drawn to their equilibrium counterparts, is a pressing question in contemporary physics. The development of large-scale superconducting circuits provides an experimental platform for these theoretical models. We report an experimental study of a multi-mode dissipative first-order phase transition in a 1D Bose-Hubbard chain consisting of 21 superconducting resonators. This phase transition manifests itself as a simultaneous frequency jump in all resonator modes as the frequency or power of a pump tone is swept. By measuring the system's emission spectrum through the transition, we characterize the dim-to-bright phase transition and construct the full phase diagram. We further perform time-dependent measurements of the switching between the two phases in the transition region, from which we corroborate the transition line and extract transition times ranging from a few ms up to 143~s. Our model, based on single-mode mean-field theory and cross-Kerr interactions, captures the features at moderate pump powers and quantitatively reproduces the transition line. Our results open a new window into non-equilibrium quantum many-body physics and mark a step toward realizing and understanding dissipative phase transitions in the thermodynamic limit using superconducting quantum circuits.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗

arXiv2025

Co-designed reflective and leaky-waveguide low-pass filter for superconducting circuits

A stepped-impedance low-pass filter with integrated hollow waveguide absorbers is presented. The filter combines low insertion loss in the passband with strong attenuation at high frequencies, making it well suited for superconducting quantum computing applications, where qubits are sensitive to both near-band and far out-of-band radiation. The structure is implemented in a rectangular coaxial geometry, with inductive sections coupled to circular hollow waveguides oriented orthogonally to the transmission axis. Above their cutoff frequency, these waveguides efficiently couple to radiation inside the stepped-impedance filter, absorbing energy that would otherwise cause Cooper pair breaking in conventional superconductors. Optimal dimensions were obtained using a differential evolution algorithm applied to interpolated electromagnetic simulation data. A prototype was fabricated and characterized using a calibrated vector network analyzer up to 67 GHz. Measurements confirm a 3 dB cutoff frequency at 13.5 GHz, insertion loss below 0.45 dB for frequencies under 8 GHz, and more than 52.7 dB rejection above 17.3 GHz. The design offers a compact, low-loss solution for near-band filtering and suppression of quasiparticle-generating radiation in cryogenic quantum systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Microwave dynamics of gated Al/InAs superconducting nanowires

Several experiments have recently reported on gate-tunable superconducting properties in metallic devices, holding promise for the realization of cryogenic switches, tunable resonators, and superconducting logic. In particular, the suppression of the critical current as a function of the gate voltage has been widely investigated. However, time-domain studies are discussed only in a few cases. In this paper, we present a microwave characterization of a gate-controlled Al-capped InAs nanowire embedded in a $\lambda/4$ coplanar waveguide resonator. We observe a shift in the resonator frequency and an increase in its internal losses as a function of the gate voltage, which we relate to a change in the imaginary and real components of the nanowire impedance, respectively. We demonstrate that these changes are described by the Mattis-Bardeen model with an effective temperature. We further study the resonator response to fast gate signals and measure characteristic response times of the order of 40 ns, both in time-domain and parametric modulation experiments. Our study elucidates the impact of the gate on the complex impedance of the nanowire in the superconducting state, as well as its dynamic performance, providing a foundation for the design of gate-controlled superconducting devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Deterministic generation of frequency-bin-encoded microwave photons

A distributed quantum computing network requires a quantum communication channel between spatially separated processing units. In superconducting circuits, such a channel can be implemented based on propagating microwave photons to encode and transfer quantum information between an emitter and a receiver. However, traveling microwave photons can be lost during the transmission, leading to the failure of information transfer. Heralding protocols can be used to detect such photon losses. In this work, we propose such a protocol and experimentally demonstrate a frequency-bin encoding method of microwave photonic modes using superconducting circuits. We deterministically encode the quantum information from a superconducting qubit by simultaneously emitting its information into two photonic modes at different frequencies, with a process fidelity of 90.4%. The frequency-bin-encoded photonic modes can be used, at the receiver processor, to detect the occurrence of photon loss. Our work thus provides a reliable method to implement high-fidelity quantum state transfer in a distributed quantum computing network, incorporating error detection to enhance performance and accuracy.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Entanglement of photonic modes from a continuously driven two-level system

The ability to generate entangled states of light is a key primitive for quantum communication and distributed quantum computation. Continuously driven sources, including those based on spontaneous parametric downconversion, are usually probabilistic, whereas deterministic sources require accurate timing of the control fields. Here, we experimentally generate entangled photonic modes by continuously exciting a quantum emitter, a superconducting qubit, with a coherent drive, taking advantage of mode matching in the time and frequency domain. Using joint quantum state tomography and logarithmic negativity, we show that entanglement is generated between modes extracted from the two sidebands of the resonance fluorescence spectrum. Because the entangled photonic modes are perfectly orthogonal, they can be transferred into distinct quantum memories. Our approach can be utilized to distribute entanglement at a high rate in various physical platforms, with applications in waveguide quantum electrodynamics, distributed quantum computing, and quantum networks.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Precision is not limited by the second law of thermodynamics

Physical devices operating out of equilibrium are inherently affected by thermal fluctuations, limiting their operational precision. This issue is pronounced at microscopic and especially quantum scales and can only be mitigated by incurring additional entropy dissipation. Understanding this constraint is crucial for both fundamental physics and technological design. For instance, clocks are inherently governed by the second law of thermodynamics and need a thermodynamic flux towards equilibrium to measure time, which results in a minimum entropy dissipation per clock tick. Classical and quantum models and experiments often show a linear relationship between precision and dissipation, but the ultimate bounds on this relationship are unknown. Our theoretical discovery presents an extensible quantum many-body system that achieves clock precision scaling exponentially with entropy dissipation. This finding demonstrates that coherent quantum dynamics can surpass the traditional thermodynamic precision limits, potentially guiding the development of future high-precision, low-dissipation quantum devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Dynamics of Gate-Controlled Superconducting Dayem Bridges

Local control of superconducting circuits by high-impedance electrical gates offers potential advantages in superconducting logic, quantum processing units, and cryoelectronics. Recent experiments have reported gate-controlled supercurrent in Dayem bridges made of metallic superconductors, mediated by direct current leakage, out-of-equilibrium phonons, or possibly other mechanisms. However, a time-domain characterization of this effect has been lacking. Here, we integrate Dayem bridges made of Niobium on Silicon into coplanar-waveguide resonators, and measure the effect of the gate voltage at steady state and during pulsed operation. We consider two types of arrangements for the gate: a side-coupled gate and a remote injector. In both cases, we observe sizable changes in the real and the imaginary part of the constriction's impedance for gate voltages of the order of 1 V. However, we find striking differences in the time-domain dynamics, with the remote injector providing a faster and more controlled response. Our results contribute to our understanding of gate-controlled superconducting devices and their suitability for applications.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2024

Dynamical excitation control and multimode emission of an atom-photon bound state

Atom-photon bound states arise from the coupling of quantum emitters to the band edge of dispersion-engineered waveguides. Thanks to their tunable-range interactions, they are promising building blocks for quantum simulators. Here, we study the dynamics of an atom-photon bound state emerging from coupling a frequency-tunable quantum emitter - a transmon-type superconducting circuit - to the band edge of a microwave metamaterial. Employing precise temporal control over the frequency detuning of the emitter from the band edge, we examine the transition from adiabatic to non-adiabatic behavior in the formation of the bound state and its melting into the propagating modes of the metamaterial. Moreover, we experimentally observe multi-mode emission from the bound state, triggered by a fast change of the emitter's frequency. Our study offers insight into the dynamic preparation of atom-photon bound states and provides a method to characterize their photonic content, with implications in quantum optics and quantum simulation.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Direct detection of quasiparticle tunneling with a charge-sensitive superconducting sensor coupled to a waveguide

Detecting quasiparticle tunneling events in superconducting circuits provides information about the population and dynamics of non-equilibrium quasiparticles. Such events can be detected by monitoring changes in the frequency of an offset-charge-sensitive superconducting qubit. This monitoring has so far been performed by Ramsey interferometry assisted by a readout resonator. Here, we demonstrate a quasiparticle detector based on a superconducting qubit directly coupled to a waveguide. We directly measure quasiparticle number parity on the qubit island by probing the coherent scattering of a microwave tone, offering simplicity of operation, fast detection speed, and a large signal-to-noise ratio. We observe tunneling rates between 0.8 and $7~\rm{s}^{-1}$, depending on the average occupation of the detector qubit, and achieve a temporal resolution below $10~\mu\rm{s}$ without a quantum-limited amplifier. Our simple and efficient detector lowers the barrier to perform studies of quasiparticle population and dynamics, facilitating progress in fundamental science, quantum information processing, and sensing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Quantum refrigeration powered by noise in a superconducting circuit

While dephasing noise frequently presents obstacles for quantum devices, it can become an asset in the context of a Brownian-type quantum refrigerator. Here we demonstrate a novel quantum thermal machine that leverages noise-assisted quantum transport to fuel a cooling engine in steady state. The device exploits symmetry-selective couplings between a superconducting artificial molecule and two microwave waveguides. These waveguides act as thermal reservoirs of different temperatures, which we regulate by employing synthesized thermal fields. We inject dephasing noise through a third channel that is longitudinally coupled to an artificial atom of the molecule. By varying the relative temperatures of the reservoirs, and measuring heat currents with a resolution below 1 aW, we demonstrate that the device can be operated as a quantum heat engine, thermal accelerator, and refrigerator. Our findings open new avenues for investigating quantum thermodynamics using superconducting quantum machines coupled to thermal microwave waveguides.

quant-ph↗