Practical realization of

Quantum Computation
Superconducting qubits

Superconductivity

Superconductivity is a phenomenon
occurring in certain materials at
extremely low temperatures,
characterized by exactly zero electrical
resistance and the exclusion of the
interior magnetic field (the Meissner
effect).

A magnet levitating above a high-temperature superconductor, cooled with liquid

nitrogen. Persistent electric current flows on the surface of the superconductor,
acting to exclude the magnetic field of the magnet (the Meissner effect). This
current effectively forms an electromagnet that repels the magnet.

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Superconducting qubits – a timeline

two-qubit gate (87% fidelity)

Schnirman et al. – theoretical
superconducting
Theory of Superconductivity

through a non-
Bardeen, Cooper, Schrieffer

first Cooper Pair Box qubit

Supercurrent

Lukens, Han (SUNY SB)

Rabi oscillations in CPB
Nakamura, Tsai (NEC)
Devoret group (Saclay)
proposal for JJ qubits
gap

Martinis (UCSB)
Martinis (NIST)
phase qubit
Flux qubit
1911 1933 1957 1962 1997 1998 1999 2000 2002 2006
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes

“Meissner effect”
Walter Meissner
Superconductivity in He

Conductors
In a normal conductor,
an electrical current
may be visualized as a
fluid of electrons
moving across a
heavy ionic lattice.
The electrons are
constantly colliding
with the ions in the
lattice.

During each collision some of the energy carried by the current is absorbed by the
lattice and converted into heat (which is essentially the vibrational kinetic energy of
the lattice ions.) As a result, the energy carried by the current is constantly being
dissipated. This is the phenomenon of electrical resistance.

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 Superconductivity
The electrical resistivity of a metallic conductor decreases gradually
as the temperature is lowered. However, in ordinary conductors such
as copper and silver, impurities and other defects impose a lower
limit. Even near absolute zero a real sample of copper shows a non-
zero resistance.
The resistance of a superconductor, on the
other hand, drops abruptly to zero when the
material is cooled below its "critical
temperature", typically 20 kelvin or less. An
electrical current flowing in a loop of
superconducting wire can persist indefinitely
with no power source. Like ferromagnetism
and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is
a quantum mechanical phenomenon. It
cannot be understood simply as the
idealization of "perfect conductivity" in
classical physics.

Superconductivity- the persistence of the

resistantless electric currents.

In a conventional superconductor, the electronic fluid cannot be resolved

into individual electrons. Instead, it consists of bound pairs of electrons
known as Cooper pairs. This pairing is caused by an attractive force
between electrons from the exchange of phonons.

- - Singe electrons- the wave function is

antisymmetric under exchange

- - Cooper pairs - the wave function is

- - symmetric under exchange

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 Superconductivity
Normally electrons do not form pairs as they repel each other. However,
inside the material the electrons interact with ions of the crystal lattice.
Very simplify, the electron can interact with the positively charged
background ions and create a local potential disturbance which can
attract another electron.

The binding energy of the two electrons is very small, 1meV, and the
pairs dissociate at higher temperatures.

At low temperatures, the electrons can exists in the bound

states (from Cooper pairs).

From BCS theory we learn that the lowest state of the system is the
one in which Cooper pairs are formed.

Superconductivity

“Converntional” superconductivity is described by Bardeen-Cooper-

Schrieffer (BCS) theory: in normal metals the electrons behave as
fermions, while in superconducting state they form “Cooper pairs” and
behave like bosons.

- - Singe electrons- the wave function is

Fermions antisymmetric under exchange

Bosons - - Cooper pairs - the wave function is

- - symmetric under exchange

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 Superconductivity
In a given superconductor all of the Cooper pairs of electrons (which
have charge 2e, mass 2me and spin zero, and are responsible for
carrying a supercurrent) are condensed into a single macroscopic
state described by a wave function Ψ(r, t) (where r is the spatial
variable and t is time.)

Due to quantum mechanics, the energy spectrum of this Cooper pair

fluid possesses an energy gap, meaning there is a minimum amount
of energy ΔE that must be supplied in order to excite the fluid.
Therefore, if ΔE is larger than the thermal energy of the lattice (given
by kT, where k is Boltzmann's constant and T is the temperature), the
fluid will not be scattered by the lattice. The Cooper pair fluid is thus a
superfluid, meaning it can flow without energy dissipation.

Superconductivity
- - Singe electrons- only one electron can
occupy a particular state

- - Cooper pairs – the above restriction no longer applies

as electron pairs are bosons and very large number
- - of pairs can occupy the same state

1. Therefore, the electron pairs do not have to move from an occupied

state to unoccupied one to carry current.

2. The normal state is an excited state which is separated from the

ground state (in which electrons form Cooper pairs) by an energy gap.
Therefore, electrons do not suffer scattering which a source of resistance
as there is an energy gap between their energy and the energies
of the states to which they can scatter.

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 Superconductors and critical temperature

Flux quantization in superconductors

We consider a superconductor in form of a hollow

cylinder which is placed in an external magnetic
field, which is parallel to the axis of the cylinder.

The magnetic field is expelled from the

superconductor (Meissner effect) and vanishes
within it. Therefore, Cooper pairs move in the
region of B=0.
 dr
If the wave function of the Cooper pair in the absence of the field is (0),
then in the presence of the field we have
r
(i 2e /  )  A (r ') dr '
r0
 '(r )   (0) (r )e

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 Flux quantization in superconductors
r
(i 2e /  )  A (r ') dr '
r0
 '(r )   (0) (r )e
When we consider a closed path S around the
cylinder which starts at point r0 we get
S
 '(r )   (0) (r )e  A (r ')dr '
(i 2 e /  ) 
  (0) (r )ei 2e  / 
r0

As the electron wave function should not be multivalued

 dr as we go around the cylinder we get the condition
2e  n 
 2n   = , n  0, 1, 2,...
 e
And the flux enclosed by the superconducting cylinder (or ring) is quantized!
This effect has been experimentally verified which confirmed that the current in
superconductors is carried by the pair of the electrons and not the individual electrons.

How this effect can be used?

The main attraction of the Aharonov-Bohm effect is the possibility to use
it in switching devices, i.e. to use the change in magnetic filed to change
the state of the device from 0 to 1.

How much do we have to change the magnetic field to switch

from the constructive to destructive electron interference?

 =
e
  1.05 1034 J  s
B =   5.1106 T
eA 1.6 1019 C  20 106 m2 
for 20m x 20m device

This is a very small field! The Earth’s magnetic field is about 40T.
It is very difficult to practically use.

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 Josephson junction
superconductors
Josephson junction:
a thin insulator sandwiched
J  J 0 sin  between two superconductors

phase difference    2  1
insulator

Depends on the tunneling probability of the electron pairs

There is a current flow across the junction in the

absence of an applied voltage!

Superconducting devices
Extremely interesting devices may be designed with a superconducting
loop with two arms being formed by Josephson junctions.

The operation of such devices is based on the fact that the phase difference
around the closed superconducting loop which encloses the magnetic flux 
is an integral product of 2e  /  .
e
The current will vary with  and has maxima at  n .

The control of the current through the superconducting loop is the
basis for many important devices. Such loops may be used
in production of low power digital logic devices, detectors, signal
processing devices, and extremely sensitive magnetic field
measurement instruments .
SQUID magnetometer (Superconductind QUantum Interference Device)

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 Superconducting quantum computing

This promising
implementation of
quantum information
involves
nanofabricated
superconducting
electrodes coupled
through Josephson
junctions. Possible
qubits are charge
qubits, flux qubits,
and phase qubits.

Experiments on superconducting qubits are challenging!

Most superconducting qubits are:

(1) created by using electron-beam lithography 0.1 × 0.1 µm2

(2) need millikelvin temperatures and an ultralow-noise
environment to operate,
(3) and can be studied only by using very sensitive
measurement techniques.

Great efforts are made to attenuate external electrical and

magnetic noise. The experiment is invariably enclosed in a Faraday
cage — either a shielded room or the metal Dewar of the
refrigerator with a contiguous metal box on top. The electrical
leads that are connected to the qubits and their read-out devices
are heavily filtered or attenuated

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 01  12
12

Energy
1
01
0

JJ creates the potential of a tilted washboard. In the

absence of fluctuations, for I < I0 the particle remains
trapped in one of the potential wells.

Flux qubit

The qubit representation is

a quantum of current (flux)
moving either clockwise or
counter-clockwise around
the loop.

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 Flux qubits
In quantum computing, flux qubits (also
known as persistent current qubits) are micro-
meter sized loops of superconducting metal
interrupted by a number of Josephson
junctions. The junction parameters are
engineered during fabrication so that a
persistent current will flow continuously when
an external flux is applied.
The computational basis states of the qubit are defined by the
circulating currents which can flow either clockwise or counter-
clockwise.
The state of the flux qubit is measured with a d.c. superconducting
quantum interference device (SQUID)

Flux qubits

 Computational operations are performed by pulsing the

qubit with microwave frequency radiation which has an
energy comparable to that of the gap between the
energy of the two basis states.
 Properly selected frequencies can put the qubit into a
quantum superposition of the two basis states,
subsequent pulses can manipulate the probability
weighting that qubit will be measured in either of the
two basis states, thus performing a computational
operation.

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 Charge qubit

In quantum computing, a charge qubit is a superconducting

qubit whose basis states are charge states (ie. states which
represent the presence or absence of excess Cooper pairs
in the island).
A charge qubit is formed by a tiny superconducting island
(also known as a Cooper-pair box) coupled by a Josephson
Circuit diagram of a junction to a superconducting reservoir (see figure). The
state of the qubit is determined by the number of Cooper
cooper pair box circuit.
pairs which have tunneled across the junction. In contrast
The island (dotted line) with the charge state of an atomic or molecular ion, the
is formed by the charge states of such an "island" involve a macroscopic
superconducting number of conduction electrons of the island. The quantum
electrode between the superposition of charge states can be achieved by tuning
gate capacitor and the the gate voltage U that controls the chemical potential of the
junction capacitance. island. The charge qubit is typically read-out by
electrostatically coupling the island to an extremely sensitive
electrometer such as the radio-frequency single-electron
transistor.

(a) A single Cooper-pair-box (SCB) circuit is shown. The superconducting

island is depicted in brown and the junction in blue. Ej and Cj are the
Josephson coupling energy and self-capacitance, respectively, and n is
the number of Cooper pairs on the island, which is coupled to a voltage
source with voltage Vg by way of a capacitor with capacitance Cg.
(b) Micrograph of a Cooper-pair box coupled to a single-electron
transistor (SET) is shown. Scale bar, 1 μm.

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 Josephson Junction Charge (NEC)

One-qubit device can control the

number of Cooper pairs of
electrons in the box, create
superposition of states.
Superconducting device, operates
at low temperatures (30 mK). Two-qubit device
Nakamura et al., Nature, 398(786), 1999 Pashkin et al., Nature, 421(823), 2003

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 Controllably coupled flux qubits

Two flux qubits are shown surrounded by a

d.c. SQUID. The qubit coupling strength is
controlled by the pulsed bias current Ipb that
is applied to the d.c. SQUID before measuring
the energy-level splitting between the states
|0> and |1>.

Because the flux qubit is a magnetic dipole,

two neighboring flux qubits are coupled by
magnetic dipole–dipole interactions.

Two flux qubits can be coupled by flux transformers — in essence a

closed loop of superconductor surrounding the qubits — enabling their
interaction to be mediated over longer distances. Because the
superconducting loop conserves magnetic flux, a change in the state of
one qubit induces a circulating current in the loop and hence a flux in
the other qubit.

Scheme of nanowire-based qubits

Scheme of nanowire-based qubits. A nanowire bridging two

superconductors substitutes the insulating barrier used in conventional
qubits to form a Josephson Junction. These hybrid semiconducting-
superconducting schemes could help researchers design flexible
quantum computing architectures that combine multiple types of qubits.

Physics 8, 87 (2015)

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 “Scalable physical system
with well-characterized qubits”
The system is physical – it is a
microfabricated device with
wires, capacitors and such
The system is in principle
quite scalable. Multiple
copies of a qubit can be
easily fabricated using the
same lithography, etc.

But: the qubits can never be made

perfectly identical (unlike atoms).
Each qubit will have slightly different
energy levels; qubits must be
characterized individually.
http://courses.washington.edu/bbbteach/576/

“ability to initialize qubit state”

Qubits are initialized by cooling to low temperatures (mK)

in a dilution refrigerator. This is how:

Energy splittings between qubit states are of the order of

f = 1 - 10 GHz (which corresponds to T = hf/kB = 50 - 500 mK)

If the system is cooled down to T0 = 10 mK, the ground state

occupancy is, according to Boltzmann distribution:
P|0> = exp(-hf/kBT0) = 0.82 – 0.98

Lower temperature dilution refrigerators mean better qubit

initialization!

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 “(Relative) long coherence times

Many sources of noise

(it’s solid state!)

“universal set of quantum gates”

01  12
12
Energy

1 Single qubit gates: applying microwaves

01 (1 – 10 GHz) for a prescribed period of
0
time.

Two-qubit gates: via capacitive or

inductive coupling of qubits.

Science 313, 1432 (2006) –

entanglement of two phase qubits
(Martinis’ group – UCSB)

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 “qubit-specific measurement”

Measurement depends on the type of qubit.

Charge qubit readout: amplifier with bimodal

response corresponding to the state of the qubit.

Flux and phase qubits readout: built-in DC-SQUID that detects

the change of flux.

Superconducting qubits - pros and cons

• Cleanest of all solid state qubits.

• Fabrication fairly straightforward,
uses standard microfab techniques
• Gate times of the order of ns
(doable!)
• Scaling seems straightforward

• Need dilution refrigerators

(and not just for noise reduction)
•Difficult to couple to
flying qubits
•Longer coherence needed, may be
impossible

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Superconducting qubits – what can we
expect in near term?
• More research aimed at identifying and quantifying the
major source(s) of decoherence.

• Improved control of the electromagnetic environment –

sources, wires, capacitors, amplifiers.

• Integration of the qubit manipulation electronics (on the

same chip as the qubits themselves).

•Connection to “flying” qubits

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