Generation of Fock states in a superconducting quantum circuit

Spin systems and harmonic oscillators comprise two archetypes in quantum mechanics. The spin-1/2 system, with two quantum energy levels, is essentially the most nonlinear system found in nature, whereas the harmonic oscillator represents the most linear, with an infinite number of evenly spaced quantum levels. A significant difference between these systems is that a two-level spin can be prepared in an arbitrary quantum state using classical excitations, whereas classical excitations applied to an oscillator generate a coherent state, nearly indistinguishable from a classical state. Quantum behaviour in an oscillator is most obvious in Fock states, which are states with specific numbers of energy quanta, but such states are hard to create. Here we demonstrate the controlled generation of multi-photon Fock states in a solid-state system. We use a superconducting phase qubit, which is a close approximation to a two-level spin system, coupled to a microwave resonator, which acts as a harmonic oscillator, to prepare and analyse pure Fock states with up to six photons. We contrast the Fock states with coherent states generated using classical pulses applied directly to the resonator.     

Strong coupling of a single photon to a superconducting qubit using circuit quantum electrodynamics

The interaction of matter and light is one of the fundamental processes occurring in nature, and its most elementary form is realized when a single atom interacts with a single photon. Reaching this regime has been a major focus of research in atomic physics and quantum optics for several decades and has generated the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics. Here we perform an experiment in which a superconducting two-level system, playing the role of an artificial atom, is coupled to an on-chip cavity consisting of a superconducting transmission line resonator. We show that the strong coupling regime can be attained in a solid-state system, and we experimentally observe the coherent interaction of a superconducting two-level system with a single microwave photon. The concept of circuit quantum electrodynamics opens many new possibilities for studying the strong interaction of light and matter. This system can also be exploited for quantum information processing and quantum communication and may lead to new approaches for single photon generation and detection.     

Real-time quantum feedback prepares and stabilizes photon number states

Feedback loops are central to most classical control procedures. A controller compares the signal measured by a sensor (system output) with the target value or set-point. It then adjusts an actuator (system input) to stabilize the signal around the target value. Generalizing this scheme to stabilize a micro-system's quantum state relies on quantum feedback, which must overcome a fundamental difficulty: the sensor measurements cause a random back-action on the system. An optimal compromise uses weak measurements, providing partial information with minimal perturbation. The controller should include the effect of this perturbation in the computation of the actuator's operation, which brings the incrementally perturbed state closer to the target. Although some aspects of this scenario have been experimentally demonstrated for the control of quantum or classical micro-system variables, continuous feedback loop operations that permanently stabilize quantum systems around a target state have not yet been realized. Here we have implemented such a real-time stabilizing quantum feedback scheme following a method inspired by ref. 13. It prepares on demand photon number states (Fock states) of a microwave field in a superconducting cavity, and subsequently reverses the effects of decoherence-induced field quantum jumps. The sensor is a beam of atoms crossing the cavity, which repeatedly performs weak quantum non-demolition measurements of the photon number. The controller is implemented in a real-time computer commanding the actuator, which injects adjusted small classical fields into the cavity between measurements. The microwave field is a quantum oscillator usable as a quantum memory or as a quantum bus swapping information between atoms. Our experiment demonstrates that active control can generate non-classical states of this oscillator and combat their decoherence, and is a significant step towards the implementation of complex quantum information operations.     

Single photon response of superconducting nanowire single photon detector

Single photon detection is one of the key technologies for quantum key distribution in quantum communication. As a novel single photon detection technology, superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) surpasses conventional semiconducting single photon detectors with high count rate and low dark count rate. In this article, we introduce SNSPD fabricated from NbN ultrathin superconducting film and lab-based SNSPD system. The characteristics of single photon response pulse of SNSPD are analyzed in detail. Also discussed is the relationship between waveform of single photon response and system bandwidth. Circuit model is made to analyze the performance of SNSPD. The simulation result agrees well with the experimental data. Those results are valuable for understanding the mechanism of SNSPD and building future SNSPD system for quantum communication.     

Preparation and measurement of three-qubit entanglement in a superconducting circuit

Traditionally, quantum entanglement has been central to foundational discussions of quantum mechanics. The measurement of correlations between entangled particles can have results at odds with classical behaviour. These discrepancies grow exponentially with the number of entangled particles. With the ample experimental confirmation of quantum mechanical predictions, entanglement has evolved from a philosophical conundrum into a key resource for technologies such as quantum communication and computation. Although entanglement in superconducting circuits has been limited so far to two qubits, the extension of entanglement to three, eight and ten qubits has been achieved among spins, ions and photons, respectively. A key question for solid-state quantum information processing is whether an engineered system could display the multi-qubit entanglement necessary for quantum error correction, which starts with tripartite entanglement. Here, using a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture, we demonstrate deterministic production of three-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states with fidelity of 88 per cent, measured with quantum state tomography. Several entanglement witnesses detect genuine three-qubit entanglement by violating biseparable bounds by 830?±?80 per cent. We demonstrate the first step of basic quantum error correction, namely the encoding of a logical qubit into a manifold of GHZ-like states using a repetition code. The integration of this encoding with decoding and error-correcting steps in a feedback loop will be the next step for quantum computing with integrated circuits.     

Observation of the dynamical Casimir effect in a superconducting circuit

One of the most surprising predictions of modern quantum theory is that the vacuum of space is not empty. In fact, quantum theory predicts that it teems with virtual particles flitting in and out of existence. Although initially a curiosity, it was quickly realized that these vacuum fluctuations had measurable consequences--for instance, producing the Lamb shift of atomic spectra and modifying the magnetic moment of the electron. This type of renormalization due to vacuum fluctuations is now central to our understanding of nature. However, these effects provide indirect evidence for the existence of vacuum fluctuations. From early on, it was discussed whether it might be possible to more directly observe the virtual particles that compose the quantum vacuum. Forty years ago, it was suggested that a mirror undergoing relativistic motion could convert virtual photons into directly observable real photons. The phenomenon, later termed the dynamical Casimir effect, has not been demonstrated previously. Here we observe the dynamical Casimir effect in a superconducting circuit consisting of a coplanar transmission line with a tunable electrical length. The rate of change of the electrical length can be made very fast (a substantial fraction of the speed of light) by modulating the inductance of a superconducting quantum interference device at high frequencies (>10 gigahertz). In addition to observing the creation of real photons, we detect two-mode squeezing in the emitted radiation, which is a signature of the quantum character of the generation process.     

Hybridization of electronic states in quantum dots through photon emission

The self-assembly of semiconductor quantum dots has opened up new opportunities in photonics. Quantum dots are usually described as 'artificial atoms', because electron and hole confinement gives rise to discrete energy levels. This picture can be justified from the shell structure observed as a quantum dot is filled either with excitons (bound electron-hole pairs) or with electrons. The discrete energy levels have been most spectacularly exploited in single photon sources that use a single quantum dot as emitter. At low temperatures, the artificial atom picture is strengthened by the long coherence times of excitons in quantum dots, motivating the application of quantum dots in quantum optics and quantum information processing. In this context, excitons in quantum dots have already been manipulated coherently. We show here that quantum dots can also possess electronic states that go far beyond the artificial atom model. These states are a coherent hybridization of localized quantum dot states and extended continuum states: they have no analogue in atomic physics. The states are generated by the emission of a photon from a quantum dot. We show how a new version of the Anderson model that describes interactions between localized and extended states can account for the observed hybridization.     

光子数压缩态的位相特性

用Ｐｅｎｇｇ－Ｂａｒｎｅｔｔ位相理论分析了光子数压缩态的位相特性．讨论了在弱压缩极限下的位相分布特征,其概率密度分布呈正弦分布,其位相平均值和方差与θ０的选取及压缩参量有关。     

Generation of three-qubit entangled states using superconducting phase qubits

Entanglement is one of the key resources required for quantum computation, so the experimental creation and measurement of entangled states is of crucial importance for various physical implementations of quantum computers. In superconducting devices, two-qubit entangled states have been demonstrated and used to show violations of Bell's inequality and to implement simple quantum algorithms. Unlike the two-qubit case, where all maximally entangled two-qubit states are equivalent up to local changes of basis, three qubits can be entangled in two fundamentally different ways. These are typified by the states |GHZ>= (|000+?|111>)/ sqrt [2] and |W>= (|001>?+?|010>?+?|100>)/ sqrt [3]. Here we demonstrate the operation of three coupled superconducting phase qubits and use them to create and measure |GHZ> and |W>states. The states are fully characterized using quantum state tomography and are shown to satisfy entanglement witnesses, confirming that they are indeed examples of three-qubit entanglement and are not separable into mixtures of two-qubit entanglement.     

Design and implementation of control system for superconducting RSFQ circuit

The superconducting rapid single flux quantum(RSFQ) integrated circuit is a promising solution for overcoming speed and power bottlenecks in high-performance computing systems in the postMoore era. This paper presents an architecture designed to improve the speed and power limitations of high-performance computing systems using superconducting technology. Since superconducting microprocessors, which operate at cryogenic temperatures, require support from semiconductor circuits, the proposed desi...     

SSPD的低抖动SFQ信号读数

运用单磁通量量子(SFQ)读取技术的超导单光子探测器(SSPD)可以实现低抖动信号的读出。通过优化SFQ读出电路的电路参数,输入电流灵敏度被改善到10μA以下,且该结果比SSPD典型的临界电流小。实验使用脉冲发生器作为输入脉冲源,结果显示测出的SFQ读出电路的抖动值远低于目前测量装置系统超过15μA的抖动电流值。SSPD连接到SFQ读出电路的测量抖动值在37 ps的半高全宽(FWHM)时的SSPD偏置电流约为18μA,这是对传统的没有SFQ读出电路,抖动为67 ps的FWHM的显著提高。     

再谈一种新的偏态分布下心理状态数的估计

心理状态数是反映人们日常生产活动中心理状态对他们的行为和结果影响的重要指标.董云河和宋述龙最早假定心理状态对结果影响的偏态分布为N(0,σ2,c).随后,宋立新给出一种新的偏态分布.该文指出了这种新偏态分布的局限性,并在此基础上提出一种更广泛的偏态分布,并得到了其矩估计和极大似然估计.通过统计模拟研究,比较已得到的2种估计与已有估计的偏差与均方误差,得出了极大似然估计具有较强的稳健性的结论.     

激发相干态下电感电容耦合介观电路的量子效应

通过量子化无耦电感电容耦合介观电路,研究了激发相干态下介观电路的量子效应,结果表明,每一回路中电荷、电流的平均值和方均值皆不为零,为回路存在相互关联的量子噪音,且它们决定于相干态、粒子数态参数以及电路参量。     

介观孔对介观超导圆盘中涡旋态的影响研究

目的计算带孔介观超导圆盘中不同涡旋态下超导序参量分布,分析介观孔对超导圆盘涡旋态的影响。方法求解Ginzburg-Landau方程。结果计算了带孔介观尺度超导圆盘中涡旋态的超导电子对密度分布,并与不带孔的介观超导圆盘的情况进行了比较。结论介观孔改变了介观超导圆盘中超导序参量的分布特征。     

The security of decoy state protocol in the partial photon number splitting attack

The decoy state protocol was proposed to overcome the primitive photon number splitting attack. When using a better strategy, the attacker can ensure that the ratio of the overall gain of the signal state pulse against the decoy state pulse changes very little, even to keep the overall gain of the signal state pulses equal to that obtained without attacker. In this paper we first give a model of the partial photon number splitting attack which contains the original one, and then find that the decoy state protocol still works effectively under the partial photon number splitting attack.     

控制开放超导量子电路系统中的几何量子关联冻结和量子相干性

本文研究了开放超导量子电路系统中,含时电磁场对两超导量子比特间的几何量子关联和量子相干性的影响. 我们发现,加入磁场之后,几何量子关联被冻结的现象会出现,并且冻结的时间会随着含时电磁场的加入而得到延长. 利用迹距离的方法,我们探讨了含时电磁场对超导量子比特与环境之间量子信息流动的影响,我们发现含时电磁场可以抑制环境的影响,降低超导量子比特与环境之间的量子信息流动.     

半导体激光器开启瞬态噪声的模拟计算

利用状态空间法通过对含噪声项的Ｌａｎｇｅｖｉｎ速率方程的求解,得到半导体激光器开启瞬态光子数噪声的方差及其自相关函数．结果显示,半导体激光器非稳态的光子数噪声主要表现为弛豫振荡的颤抖时间．