Related papers: Measuring quasiparticle dynamics for particle impa…
Decoherence in superconducting qubits is dominated by defects that reside at amorphous interfaces. Interaction with discrete defects results in dropouts that complicate qubit operation and lead to nongaussian tails in the distribution of…
As the energy relaxation time of superconducting qubits steadily improves, non-equilibrium quasiparticle excitations above the superconducting gap emerge as an increasingly relevant limit for qubit coherence. We measure fluctuations in the…
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…
We evaluate the quasiparticle contribution to the frequency shift and relaxation rates of a transmon with the Josephson junctions connecting superconductors that have unequal energy gaps. The gap difference substantially affects the…
We present measurements of coherence and successive decay dynamics of higher energy levels of a superconducting transmon qubit. By applying consecutive $\pi$-pulses for each sequential transition frequency, we excite the qubit from the…
The ideal superconductor provides a pristine environment for the delicate states of a quantum computer: because there is an energy gap to excitations, there are no spurious modes with which the qubits can interact, causing irreversible…
We investigate the energy and phase relaxation of a superconducting qubit caused by a single quasiparticle. In our model, the qubit is an isolated system consisting of a small island (Cooper-pair box) and a larger superconductor (reservoir)…
Quasiparticle relaxation in pure superconductors is thought to be determined by the intrinsic inelastic scattering rate in the material. In certain applications, i.e. superconducting qubits and circuits, excess quasiparticles exist at…
The performance and scalability of superconducting quantum circuits are fundamentally constrained by non-equilibrium quasiparticles, which induce microwave losses that limit resonator quality factors and qubit coherence times. Understanding…
We examine energy relaxation of non-equilibrium quasiparticles in "dirty" superconductors with the electron mean free path much shorter than the superconducting coherence length. Relaxation of low-energy non-equilibrium quasiparticles is…
The characterization and mitigation of decoherence in natural and artificial two-level systems (qubits) is fundamental to quantum information science and its applications. Decoherence of a quantum superposition state arises from the…
We measure temperature dependent quasiparticle fluctuations in a small Al volume, embedded in a NbTiN superconducting microwave resonator. The resonator design allows for read-out close to equilibrium. By placing the Al film on a membrane,…
Material inhomogeneities in a superconductor generically lead to broadening of the density of states and to subgap states. The latter are associated with spatial fluctuations of the gap in which quasiparticles can be trapped. Recombination…
Quantum computing relies on the operation of qubits in an environment as free of noise as possible. This work reports on measuring the impact of environmental radiation on lifetimes of fixed frequency transmon qubits with various capacitor…
Superconducting qubits can be sensitive to abrupt energy deposits caused by cosmic rays and ambient radioactivity. While previous studies have explored correlated effects in time and space due to cosmic ray interactions, we present the…
Throughout multiple cooldowns we observe a power-law reduction in time for the rate of multi-qubit correlated poisoning events, while the rate of shifts in qubit offset-charge remains constant; evidence of a non-ionizing source of…
We calculate the energy decay rate of Josephson qubits and superconducting resonators from non-equilibrium quasiparticles. The decay rates from experiments are shown to be consistent with predictions based on a prior measurement of the…
We study theoretically dynamics of a driven-dissipative qubit-resonator system. Specifically, a transmon qubit is coupled to a transmission-line resonator; this system is considered to be probed via a resonator, by means of either…
Non-equilibrium quasiparticles are possible sources for decoherence in superconducting qubits because they can lead to energy decay or dephasing upon tunneling across Josephson junctions (JJs). Here, we investigate the impact of the…
Quasiparticle tunneling across a Josephson junction sets a limit for the lifetime of a superconducting qubit state. We develop a general theory of the corresponding decay rate in a qubit controlled by a magnetic flux. The flux affects…