Quantum Computing

Hardware & Superconducting

Circuits
Olivia Lanes, PhD
North American Lead, IBM Quantum +
Qiskit Community
Big Picture + Game Plan

(1) What is a REAL qubit anyway

(2) Atoms & artificial atoms

(3) DiVincenzo Criteria

(4) Classical circuits

(5) Quantum Circuits and the
Josephson Junction
(6) How to control & measure a
transmon
2
Motivation

3
 How do we build a quantum computer?
|𝑒⟩

Well-behaved quantum systems

|𝑔⟩

…that we can initialize into a known state

…with relatively-long coherence times `

...and a universal set of quantum gates

And qubit-specific measurement capability 4

D. DiVincenzo, arXiv (2020)
What is a real qubit?

3
2
Energy

Toy Model Real Life

5
Images from IonQ, IBM, Phys.org
 Qubit Flavors

6
Fig. Source: Michel Kurek, Feb 2021.
 Quantum Origins Excited
hydrogen
sample Detector
Prism
Slit

Emitted
Wavelengths

7
Image from chemistrygod.com
 Spectral lines
Hydrogen 3
2
Helium

1
Neon
Energy is
quantized!!
Sodium

0
Mercury

8
Image NMSU, N. Vogt
Atomic Qubits

Energy
1
~ "𝑟

1
Only a laser with this energy will
affect our qubit!
0

9
Why make an artificial atom?

CJ

LJ

• Can mimic electromagnetic spectrum

• Can create “knobs” to control all elements we care about
• Can leverage semiconductor fab industry

10
Classical electrical circuits

Toolkit:

R C L

• Implements electrical • Stores energy in • Stores energy in

resistance electric field magnetic field

• Described by Kirchoff’s laws

• Flux and charge are continuous variables

11
What is flux/charge
%'
F= 𝐵𝐴cos(θ) 𝑄 = + 𝐼 . 𝑑𝑡
%& F
+Q

-Q
A

LC circuit
Classical Hamiltonian
1 2 1 2
H= Q +
2C 2L
p 12
!0 /2⇡ = 1/2⇡ LC
 Linear circuits

C L

K V
𝑄! ϕ!
𝐻= +
2𝐶 2𝐿
𝑝! 𝑘𝑥 !
𝐻= +
Image taken by O.Lanes @ Univ. of Pittsburgh
2𝑚 2
Quantum linear circuits
IBM Quantum

Means it’s a quantum E

variable now
Quantum Hamiltonian

1 2 1 ˆ2 .
Ĥ = Q̂ + .
2C 2L
.
Ĥ = ~!0 (n̂ + 1/2) |3⟩
|2⟩ ℏ𝜔0
|1⟩ ℏ𝜔0
Need unique addressability for use |0⟩ ℏ𝜔0
as a qubit
F
IBM Confidential – Internal use only
 Superconductivity
IBM Quantum

• Vanishing electrical resistance. Non-

dissipative

• Cooper pairs: Electrons anti-correlated

in momentum. Attractive interaction

Resistance
mediated by the lattice

𝑘 −𝑘
e e

Images from physicsfeed.com IBM Confidential – Internal use only

Josephson Junctions
Qubit

𝜙
I
S
=
100 nm

𝐼 = 𝐼" 𝑠𝑖𝑛(𝜙) Amplifier

E = 𝐸# 𝑐𝑜𝑠(𝜙)
1um
! !!
𝜙 = , 𝜑# =
"! $% 16
Images taken by O.Lanes @ Univ. of Pittsburgh
Quantum non-linear circuits: Josephson junction
IBM Quantum

SC p i I
1 = ⇢1 e 1

Insulator RN
p i IC
SC 2 = ⇢2 e 2

Al V

Al O33
Al22O -IC At T=0 K
⇡
I C RN =
Al 2e
V. Ambegaokar, A. Baratoff, PRL 10,
486-489 (1963)
JAP, 125(16), 165301, 2019 IBM Confidential – Internal use only
 Circuit Quantization ϕ# 𝑄#
𝐻= +
2𝐿 2𝐶
Φ 𝑄#
𝐻 = −𝐸! cos +
𝜑" 2𝐶!
CJ
$! % # $! % ' )#
= − +⋯ +
# &" '! &" #+
LJ 1 𝐸, Higher order
=
𝐿, Φ-' perturbation

Approximate JJ
Hamiltonian: ≈ ħω, 𝑎- 𝑎 − λħ𝑎- 𝑎𝑎- 𝑎 + ⋯

For more details on this math, see Zlatko’s lecture

from QGSS #1
Transmon qubit

Josephson junction with shunting capacitor è anharmonic oscillator

Potential energy

|𝑓 ⟩

𝐿, 𝐶, 𝐶 |𝑒⟩

|𝑔⟩

Φ
lowest two levels form qubit
fge ~ 5.0 GHz, fef ~ 4.80 GHz

Koch, et al. Phys. Rev. A (2007)

Anatomy of an IBM transmon
Superconducting Qubit:
§ Josephson Junction as a nonlinear inductor

100 nm
x 100 nm

Superconducting
Microwave Resonators:
§ read-out of qubit states
§ multi-qubit quantum bus
§ filters at qubit freq
IBM Quantum / © 2022 IBM Corporation 20
21
Break

22
Classical Non-Demolition Measurement

Demolition (obviously) Non-demolition (yay) 23

Analogy from Howard Wiseman
Quantum Non-Demolition Measurement

LJ CJ LJ CJ L C

Qubit Qubit Cavity

𝜔)./01 ≠ 𝜔+,2013

Direct observation QND

24
Quantum dispersive measurement

𝐻 "
𝛼 "" $
= = 𝜔! 𝑞 𝑞 + 𝜔# 𝑐 𝑐 − 𝑞 𝑞 − 𝜒𝑞" 𝑞𝑐 " 𝑐
ℏ 2

2𝐷 𝐶𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦 3𝐷 𝐶𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑦

Readout dispersive shift 𝜒

I
amplitude |𝑒⟩ |𝑔⟩ |𝑒⟩
$
𝐼( $
+ 𝑄(
|𝑔⟩
𝑓
𝑓)
𝜃
width 𝜅 𝑛D
Readout 𝜋1
phase 2 Q
𝑄 |𝑒⟩ 𝜃 = 2 tan&'
𝜒1
𝜅
tan&' (1𝐼
( |𝑔⟩
− 𝜋12 𝑓
Qubit measurement, no amplifier

Dilution refrigerator ≈ 10 𝑚𝐾

𝜃
|𝑒⟩

|𝑔⟩

I I
|𝑔⟩ |𝑒⟩

𝑛D 𝜃
𝑛D
Q Q
Qubit measurement, HEMT only

|𝑒⟩

Room temp

|𝑔⟩ HEMT

I I I
|𝑔⟩ |𝑒⟩

𝑛D 𝜃 𝜃
𝑛D
𝐺 𝑛D
Q Q Q
Qubit measurement with preamp

|𝑒⟩

Q-L preamp
|𝑔⟩ HEMT

I I |𝑔⟩ I |𝑒⟩ |𝑔⟩ I |𝑒⟩

|𝑔⟩ |𝑒⟩

𝑛D 𝜃 𝜃 𝜃
𝑛D 𝑛D 𝑛D
Q Q Q Q
• State preparation
• msmt back-action
• error correction
C. Caves 1982 • ……
 IBM Quantum
High fidelity single-shot readout

|𝑒⟩
• State of the art fidelities exceed 99%

• Josephson junction based quantum

limited amplifiers enable single-shot
|𝑔⟩ measurement

Quantum jumps
R. Vijay et al, PRL 106, 110502 (2011) IBM Confidential – Internal use only
A theoretical look at gates
IBM Quantum

Pauli Matrices:

Rotations about the

Bloch sphere:
𝑅 𝜃 = exp −𝑖 𝜃>2 𝑛 . 𝜎 = 𝐼 cos 𝜃>2 − 𝑖 𝑛 . 𝜎 𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜃>2

𝜎 = 𝑋, 𝑌, 𝑍 |0 ⟩

cos 𝜃(2 −𝑖sin 𝜃(2

Example of X rotation: 𝑅! 𝜃 =
−𝑖sin 𝜃(2 cos 𝜃(2

|1⟩
IBM Confidential – Internal use only
Classical vs. quantum gates
Classical Computers
NOR
NAND
A B Output A B Output
0 0 1 0 0 1
1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 0
1 1 0 1 1 0
Quantum Computers

cNOT Input Output cPhase Input Output iSWAP Input Output

|00⟩ |00⟩ |00⟩ |00⟩ |00⟩ |00⟩
|01⟩ |01⟩ |01⟩ |01⟩ |01⟩ 𝑖 |10⟩
|10⟩ |11⟩ |10⟩ |10⟩ |10⟩ 𝑖 |01⟩
|11⟩ |10⟩ |11⟩ −|10⟩ |11⟩ |11⟩
31
How do we interact with Microwave Generator

superconducting qubits?

Attenuated coax lines

Quantum Processor
IBM Quantum / © 2022 IBM Corporation 32
Generating Shaped Microwave Pulses
IBM Quantum

𝛼 M
𝐻 = 𝜔L 𝑎- M 𝑎-
+ 𝑎- 𝑎- 𝑎- M 𝑎- − 1
2
+Ω 𝑎- M + 𝑎- cos 𝜔N 𝑡 + 𝜙

This term is physically generated by

applying an oscillating voltage
(microwave pulse) at the qubit

See, e.g., McKay et al, Phys. Rev. A 96, 022330 (2017)

Arbitrary waveform generators (which can

produce arbitrary voltages at ~1-2
GSamples/s) are used to produced shaped
pulses at lower frequency which are then
mixed up with an IQ mixer to the qubit t im e
frequency
IBM Confidential – Internal use only
Single Qubit Control

Z Rotations

Axis of rotation in Bloch sphere

depends on phase
Rotations come for free:
Just shift phase of
subsequent pulses

IBM Quantum / © 2022 IBM Corporation 34

Two Qubit Gates

Cross Resonance: ZX Operation

Rotation of Target Qubit depends on

state of Control Qubit

target
Q2
J ~
bus
Q1
Control Qubit Target Qubit control

35
[C Rigetti et al, PRB (2010)] [JM Chow et al, PRL (2011)]
Large Processor Development

36
Development roadmap

IBM Quantum / © 2022 IBM Corporation 37

Putting it all together

Radio-
Room temp frequency
control (RF) cables
electronics

Qubits + cryo
amplifiers

Maika J

38
Quantum Hardware Challenges

Inside the Cryo Dilution Fridge Processor, device

Room temp development
Cryo-CMOS controls
electronics Coherence, junctions, materials
(stable, low-noise, cost)

Better two-qubit gates

Cryo flex lines

Novel qubit couplers

w
Amplifiers, Attenuators, Isolators

39
Coherent errors
Q2
1 0 0 0 0.995 0.1𝑗 0 0
Q1
0 1 0 0 −0.1𝑗 0.995 0 0
𝑈!"#$ = 𝑈%&' =
0 0 0 1 0 0 −0.1 0.995
0 0 1 0 0 0 0.995 −0.1

Q3
-3
x 10
-0.8

-1
• Always-on interactions
Signal (a.u.)
-1.2

-1.4
• Spectators (Quantum cross-talk)
-1.6 • Frequency collisions
-1.8
0 5 10 15 20
Number of Repetitions

• Coherent over/under rotations

• Calibration of pulses by error amplification
• Incomplete understanding of drive Hamiltonian
Incoherent errors
IBM Quantum

• Qubit decoherence (loss of quantum information)

–T1: relaxation time (decay from |1> to |0>)
–Tϕ: dephasing time (randomization of ϕ)
–T2: overall decoherence time (both T1 and Tϕ)

1 1 1
= +
𝑇# 2𝑇: 𝑇;

IBM Confidential – Internal use only

 IBM Quantum
Superconducting qubits coherence timeline
10
-2 – Understand charge noise e.g. [1]
best – 3D transmon [5]
-3
10 repeatable – IR Shielding [6,7],
– Cold cavities & cold qubits [8]
10 -4
– High Q cavities [9]
10 -5 – Materials e.g. [2,10]
– Design and geometries [4,10]
(7s)
TT2 (s)

-6
10
– Microwave environment [3]
2

-7
10 [1] Koch et. al. PRA 76, 04319 (2007)
[2] J. Martinis et al., PRL 95 210503 (2005)
-8 [3] Houck et. al. PRL 101, 080502 (2008)
10 [4] K. Geerlings et al., APL 100, 192601 (2012)
[5] H. Paik et al., PRL 107, 240501 (2011)
-9 [6] R. Barends et al., APL 99, 113507 (2011)
10 [7] A. Corcoles et al., APL 99, 181906 (2011)
[8] C. Rigetti et al., PRB 86, 100506 (2012)
10
-10 [9] M. Reagor et al., APL 102, 192604 (2013)
1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 [10] J. Chang et al. APL 103, 012602 (2013)
Year

IBM Confidential – Internal use only

Sources of Leakage • Bandwidth of fast
pulse excites e-f
transitions. • Readout signal can excite
multiphoton transitions to
states well above |f>
• Single qubit gates

• Readout

Sank, PRL 2016.

• Two qubit gates

• Reset

Verney, PRApp (2019)

• Depends on implementation

• CR requires very strong drive tones

• We know to avoid certain collision frequencies

to avoid leakage
43
• Ongoing research
Summary & Take-Aways

• You now know what a real superconducting

qubit looks like, and the components that
make it

• A little something about classical circuits and

quantum circuits

• Why Josephson Junctions are *key*

• How to measure and control a qubit

• Key challenges in the field of hardware

research

44
Thank you