Ce manuscrit se décompose en deux parties principales, associées à deux types d'applications assez différentes. Dans la première partie qui comprend les deux premiers chapitres, je m'intéresse à des ...systèmes issus de problèmes de contrôle et d'estimation en physique quantique; dans la deuxième partie (troisième chapitre du manuscrit), j'étudie la propagation d'ondes électriques le long des fils classiques dans un réseau de lignes de transmission et je considère certains problèmes d'estimation de paramètres. Dans le premier chapitre nous étudions le problème de la planification de trajectoires pour des systèmes quantiques fermés modélisés par des équations de Schrödinger bilinéaire. Nous démontrons alors des résultats de la stabilisation approchée pour le cas d'une boite quantique infinie ainsi que pour le cas d'un potentiel décroissant. Dans les deux cas, le manque de pré-compacité des trajectoires dans des espaces fonctionnels appropriés nous oblige à proposer des méthodes de Lyapunov qui évitent des phénomènes de perte de masse à l'infini. Dans le deuxième chapitre nous étudions le problème de stabilisation de systèmes quantiques en observation. Cette observation nécessite l'ouverture du système à son environnement. Les modèles pertinents pour l'évolution de ce type de systèmes sont des modèles stochastiques basés sur des trajectoires de Monte-Carlo quantiques. Nous étudions alors certains problèmes de stabilisation qui parviennent de vraies expériences physiques. Enfin, dans le chapitre 3 nous considérons le problème d'estimation de paramètres pour un réseau de fils de câblage électrique. Dans ce but, nous étudions deux approches : l'approche temporelle et l'approche fréquentielle. Dans l'approche temporelle, nous considérons le réseau le plus simple qui consiste d'une seule ligne de transmission et nous proposons un algorithme d'identification pour l'équation d'onde associé qui est basé sur l'application des observateurs asymptotiques. Dans l'approche fréquentielle, nous considérons un réseau plus compliqué de la forme étoile. Nous proposons alors des résultats d'identifiabilité basés sur des techniques de l'inverse scattering.
In quantum error correction, information is encoded in a high-dimensional system to protect it from the environment. A crucial step is to use natural, low-weight operations with an ancilla to extract ...information about errors without causing backaction on the encoded system. Essentially, ancilla errors must not propagate to the encoded system and induce errors beyond those which can be corrected. The current schemes for achieving this fault-tolerance to ancilla errors come at the cost of increased overhead requirements. An efficient way to extract error syndromes in a fault-tolerant manner is by using a single ancilla with strongly biased noise channel. Typically, however, required elementary operations can become challenging when the noise is extremely biased. We propose to overcome this shortcoming by using a bosonic-cat ancilla in a parametrically driven nonlinear cavity. Such a cat-qubit experiences only bit-flip noise and is stabilized against phase-flips. To highlight the flexibility of this approach, we illustrate the syndrome extraction process in a variety of codes such as qubit-based toric codes, bosonic cat- and Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill (GKP) codes. Our results open a path for realizing hardware-efficient, fault-tolerant error syndrome extraction.
Entangling gates between qubits are a crucial component for performing algorithms in quantum computers. However, any quantum algorithm must ultimately operate on error-protected logical qubits ...encoded in high-dimensional systems. Typically, logical qubits are encoded in multiple two-level systems, but entangling gates operating on such qubits are highly complex and have not yet been demonstrated. Here, we realize a controlled NOT (CNOT) gate between two multiphoton qubits in two microwave cavities. In this approach, we encode a qubit in the high-dimensional space of a single cavity mode, rather than in multiple two-level systems. We couple two such encoded qubits together through a transmon, which is driven by an RF pump to apply the gate within 190 ns. This is two orders of magnitude shorter than the decoherence time of the transmon, enabling a high-fidelity gate operation. These results are an important step towards universal algorithms on error-corrected logical qubits.
The remarkable discovery of Quantum Error Correction (QEC), which can overcome the errors experienced by a bit of quantum information (qubit), was a critical advance that gives hope for eventually ...realizing practical quantum computers. In principle, a system that implements QEC can actually pass a "break-even" point and preserve quantum information for longer than the lifetime of its constituent parts. Reaching the break-even point, however, has thus far remained an outstanding and challenging goal. Several previous works have demonstrated elements of QEC in NMR, ions, nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers, photons, and superconducting transmons. However, these works primarily illustrate the signatures or scaling properties of QEC codes rather than test the capacity of the system to extend the lifetime of quantum information over time. Here we demonstrate a QEC system that reaches the break-even point by suppressing the natural errors due to energy loss for a qubit logically encoded in superpositions of coherent states, or cat states of a superconducting resonator. Moreover, the experiment implements a full QEC protocol by using real-time feedback to encode, monitor naturally occurring errors, decode, and correct. As measured by full process tomography, the enhanced lifetime of the encoded information is 320 microseconds without any post-selection. This is 20 times greater than that of the system's transmon, over twice as long as an uncorrected logical encoding, and 10% longer than the highest quality element of the system (the resonator's 0, 1 Fock states). Our results illustrate the power of novel, hardware efficient qubit encodings over traditional QEC schemes. Furthermore, they advance the field of experimental error correction from confirming the basic concepts to exploring the metrics that drive system performance and the challenges in implementing a fault-tolerant system.
The `Schr\"odinger's cat' thought experiment highlights the counterintuitive facet of quantum theory that entanglement can exist between microscopic and macroscopic systems, producing a superposition ...of distinguishable states like the fictitious cat that is both alive and dead. The hallmark of entanglement is the detection of strong correlations between systems, for example by the violation of Bell's inequality. Using the CHSH variant of the Bell test, this violation has been observed with photons, atoms, solid state spins, and artificial atoms in superconducting circuits. For larger, more distinguishable states, the conflict between quantum predictions and our classical expectations is typically resolved due to the rapid onset of decoherence. To investigate this reconciliation, one can employ a superposition of coherent states in an oscillator, known as a cat state. In contrast to discrete systems, one can continuously vary the size of the prepared cat state and therefore its dependence on decoherence. Here we demonstrate and quantify entanglement between an artificial atom and a cat state in a cavity, which we call a `Bell-cat' state. We use a circuit QED architecture, high-fidelity measurements, and real-time feedback control to violate Bell's inequality without post-selection or corrections for measurement inefficiencies. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of decoherence by continuously varying the size of created Bell-cat states and characterize the entangled system by joint Wigner tomography. These techniques provide a toolset for quantum information processing with entangled qubits and resonators. While recent results have demonstrated a high level of control of such systems, this experiment demonstrates that information can be extracted efficiently and with high fidelity, a crucial requirement for quantum computing with resonators.
Physical systems usually exhibit quantum behavior, such as superpositions and entanglement, only when they are sufficiently decoupled from a lossy environment. Paradoxically, a specially engineered ...interaction with the environment can become a resource for the generation and protection of quantum states. This notion can be generalized to the confinement of a system into a manifold of quantum states, consisting of all coherent superpositions of multiple stable steady states. We have experimentally confined the state of a harmonic oscillator to the quantum manifold spanned by two coherent states of opposite phases. In particular, we have observed a Schrodinger cat state spontaneously squeeze out of vacuum, before decaying into a classical mixture. This was accomplished by designing a superconducting microwave resonator whose coupling to a cold bath is dominated by photon pair exchange. This experiment opens new avenues in the fields of nonlinear quantum optics and quantum information, where systems with multi-dimensional steady state manifolds can be used as error corrected logical qubits.
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 number of quasiparticle excitations by continuously monitoring the spontaneous quantum jumps between the states of a fluxonium qubit, in conditions where relaxation is dominated by quasiparticle loss. Resolution on the scale of a single quasiparticle is obtained by performing quantum non-demolition projective measurements within a time interval much shorter than \(T_1\), using a quantum limited amplifier (Josephson Parametric Converter). The quantum jumps statistics switches between the expected Poisson distribution and a non-Poissonian one, indicating large relative fluctuations in the quasiparticle population, on time scales varying from seconds to hours. This dynamics can be modified controllably by injecting quasiparticles or by seeding quasiparticle-trapping vortices by cooling down in magnetic field.
Photons are ideal carriers for quantum information as they can have a long coherence time and can be transmitted over long distances. These properties are a consequence of their weak interactions ...within a nearly linear medium. To create and manipulate nonclassical states of light, however, one requires a strong, nonlinear interaction at the single photon level. One approach to generate suitable interactions is to couple photons to atoms, as in the strong coupling regime of cavity QED systems. In these systems, however, one only indirectly controls the quantum state of the light by manipulating the atoms. A direct photon-photon interaction occurs in so-called Kerr media, which typically induce only weak nonlinearity at the cost of significant loss. So far, it has not been possible to reach the single-photon Kerr regime, where the interaction strength between individual photons exceeds the loss rate. Here, using a 3D circuit QED architecture, we engineer an artificial Kerr medium which enters this regime and allows the observation of new quantum effects. We realize a Gedankenexperiment proposed by Yurke and Stoler, in which the collapse and revival of a coherent state can be observed. This time evolution is a consequence of the quantization of the light field in the cavity and the nonlinear interaction between individual photons. During this evolution non-classical superpositions of coherent states, i.e. multi-component Schroedinger cat states, are formed. We visualize this evolution by measuring the Husimi Q-function and confirm the non-classical properties of these transient states by Wigner tomography. The single-photon Kerr effect could be employed in QND measurement of photons, single photon generation, autonomous quantum feedback schemes and quantum logic operations.
