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1. Phononic bath engineering of a superconducting qubit

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39682-0  

   Kitzman, J. M.; Lane, J. R.; Undershute, C.; Harrington, P. M.; Beysengulov, N. R.; Mikolas, C. A.; Murch, K. W.; Pollanen, J. (July 2023, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Phonons, the ubiquitous quanta of vibrational energy, play a vital role in the performance of quantum technologies. Conversely, unintended coupling to phonons degrades qubit performance and can lead to correlated errors in superconducting qubit systems. Regardless of whether phonons play an enabling or deleterious role, they do not typically admit control over their spectral properties, nor the possibility of engineering their dissipation to be used as a resource. Here we show that coupling a superconducting qubit to a bath of piezoelectric surface acoustic wave phonons enables a novel platform for investigating open quantum systems. By shaping the loss spectrum of the qubit via the bath of lossy surface phonons, we demonstrate preparation and dynamical stabilization of superposition states through the combined effects of drive and dissipation. These experiments highlight the versatility of engineered phononic dissipation and advance the understanding of mechanical losses in superconducting qubit systems. 

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2. Broadband bandpass Purcell filter for circuit quantum electrodynamics

   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0161893  

   Yan, Haoxiong; Wu, Xuntao; Lingenfelter, Andrew; Joshi, Yash J.; Andersson, Gustav; Conner, Christopher R.; Chou, Ming-Han; Grebel, Joel; Miller, Jacob M.; Povey, Rhys G.; et al (September 2023, Applied Physics Letters)

   In circuit quantum electrodynamics, qubits are typically measured using dispersively coupled readout resonators. Coupling between each readout resonator and its electrical environment, however, reduces the qubit lifetime via the Purcell effect. Inserting a Purcell filter counters this effect while maintaining high readout fidelity but reduces measurement bandwidth and, thus, limits multiplexing readout capacity. In this Letter, we develop and implement a multi-stage bandpass Purcell filter that yields better qubit protection while simultaneously increasing measurement bandwidth and multiplexed capacity. We report on the experimental performance of our transmission-line-based implementation of this approach, a flexible design that can easily be integrated with current scaled-up, long coherence time superconducting quantum processors. 

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3. Digital coherent control of a superconducting qubit

   Leonard Jr., E.; Beck, M.A.; Nelson, JJ; Christensen, B.G.; Thorbeck, T.; Howington, C.; Opremcak, A.; Pechenezhskiy, I.V.; Dodge, K.; Dupuis, N.P.; et al (June 2018, arXiv.org)

   High-fidelity gate operations are essential to the realization of a fault-tolerant quantum computer. In addition, the physical resources required to implement gates must scale efficiently with system size. A longstanding goal of the superconducting qubit community is the tight integration of a superconducting quantum circuit with a proximal classical cryogenic control system. Here we implement coherent control of a superconducting transmon qubit using a Single Flux Quantum (SFQ) pulse driver cofabricated on the qubit chip. The pulse driver delivers trains of quantized flux pulses to the qubit through a weak capacitive coupling; coherent rotations of the qubit state are realized when the pulse-to-pulse timing is matched to a multiple of the qubit oscillation period. We measure the fidelity of SFQ-based gates to be ~95% using interleaved randomized benchmarking. Gate fidelities are limited by quasiparticle generation in the dissipative SFQ driver. We characterize the dissipative and dispersive contributions of the quasiparticle admittance and discuss mitigation strategies to suppress quasiparticle poisoning. These results open the door to integration of large-scale superconducting qubit arrays with SFQ control elements for low-latency feedback and stabilization. 

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4. Nonlinear coupling of closely spaced modes in atomically thin MoS2 nanoelectromechanical resonators

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-024-00844-9  

   Yousuf, S_M_Enamul_Hoque; Shaw, Steven_W; Feng, Philip_X-L (December 2024, Microsystems & Nanoengineering)

   Abstract Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) incorporating atomic or molecular layer van der Waals materials can support multimode resonances and exotic nonlinear dynamics. Here we investigate nonlinear coupling of closely spaced modes in a bilayer (2L) molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanoelectromechanical resonator. We model the response from a drumhead resonator using equations of two resonant modes with a dispersive coupling term to describe the vibration induced frequency shifts that result from the induced change in tension. We employ method of averaging to solve the equations of coupled modes and extract an expression for the nonlinear coupling coefficient (λ) in closed form. Undriven thermomechanical noise spectral measurements are used to calibrate the vibration amplitude of mode 2 (a₂) in the displacement domain. We drive mode 2 near its natural frequency and measure the shifted resonance frequency of mode 1 (f_1s) resulting from the dispersive coupling. Our model yieldsλ = 0.027 ± 0.005 pm⁻² · μs⁻²from thermomechanical noise measurement of mode 1. Our model also captures an anomalous frequency shift of the undriven mode 1 due to nonlinear coupling to the driven mode 2 mediated by large dynamic tension. This study provides a direct means to quantifyingλby measuring the thermomechanical noise in NEMS and will be valuable for understanding nonlinear mode coupling in emerging resonant systems. 

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5. Cavity electro-optics in thin-film lithium niobate for efficient microwave-to-optical transduction

   https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.397513  

   Holzgrafe, Jeffrey; Sinclair, Neil; Zhu, Di; Shams-Ansari, Amirhassan; Colangelo, Marco; Hu, Yaowen; Zhang, Mian; Berggren, Karl_K; Lončar, Marko (December 2020, Optica)

   Linking superconducting quantum devices to optical fibers via microwave-optical quantum transducers may enable large-scale quantum networks. For this application, transducers based on the Pockels electro-optic (EO) effect are promising for their direct conversion mechanism, high bandwidth, and potential for low-noise operation. However, previously demonstrated EO transducers require large optical pump power to overcome weak EO coupling and reach high efficiency. Here, we create an EO transducer in thin-film lithium niobate, a platform that provides low optical loss and strong EO coupling. We demonstrate on-chip transduction efficiencies of up toandof optical pump power. The transduction efficiency can be improved by further reducing the microwave resonator’s piezoelectric coupling to acoustic modes, increasing the optical resonator quality factor to previously demonstrated levels, and changing the electrode geometry for enhanced EO coupling. We expect that with further development, EO transducers in thin-film lithium niobate can achieve near-unity efficiency with low optical pump power. 

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