Scalable quantum computing can become a reality with error correction, provided that coherent qubits can be constructed in large arrays1,2. The key premise is that physical errors can remain both ...small and sufficiently uncorrelated as devices scale, so that logical error rates can be exponentially suppressed. However, impacts from cosmic rays and latent radioactivity violate these assumptions. An impinging particle can ionize the substrate and induce a burst of quasiparticles that destroys qubit coherence throughout the device. High-energy radiation has been identified as a source of error in pilot superconducting quantum devices3–5, but the effect on large-scale algorithms and error correction remains an open question. Elucidating the physics involved requires operating large numbers of qubits at the same rapid timescales necessary for error correction. Here, we use space- and time-resolved measurements of a large-scale quantum processor to identify bursts of quasiparticles produced by high-energy rays. We track the events from their initial localized impact as they spread, simultaneously and severely limiting the energy coherence of all qubits and causing chip-wide failure. Our results provide direct insights into the impact of these damaging error bursts and highlight the necessity of mitigation to enable quantum computing to scale.Cosmic rays flying through superconducting quantum devices create bursts of excitations that destroy qubit coherence. Rapid, spatially resolved measurements of qubit error rates make it possible to observe the evolution of the bursts across a chip.
Implementation of an error-corrected quantum computer is believed to require a quantum processor with a million or more physical qubits, and, in order to run such a processor, a quantum control ...system of similar scale will be required. Such a controller will need to be integrated within the cryogenic system and in close proximity with the quantum processor in order to make such a system practical. Here, we present a prototype cryogenic CMOS quantum controller designed in a 28-nm bulk CMOS process and optimized to implement a 16-word (4-bit) XY gate instruction set for controlling transmon qubits. After introducing the transmon qubit, including a discussion of how it is controlled, design considerations are discussed, with an emphasis on error rates and scalability. The circuit design is then discussed. Cryogenic performance of the underlying technology is presented, and the results of several quantum control experiments carried out using the integrated controller are described. This article ends with a comparison to the state of the art and a discussion of further research to be carried out. It has been shown that the quantum control IC achieves promising performance while dissipating less than 2 mW of total ac and dc power and requiring a digital data stream of less than 500 Mb/s.
It is demonstrated that the silicon atom dangling bond (DB) state serves as a quantum dot. Coulomb repulsion causes DBs separated by less, similar2 nm to exhibit reduced localized charge, which ...enables electron tunnel coupling of DBs. Scanning tunneling microscopy measurements and theoretical modeling reveal that fabrication geometry of multi-DB assemblies determines net occupation and tunnel coupling strength among dots. Electron occupation of DB assemblies can be controlled at room temperature. Electrostatic control over charge distribution within assemblies is demonstrated.
While quantum processors are typically cooled to \lt 25 mK to avoid thermal disturbances to their delicate quantum states, all qubits still suffer decoherence and gate errors. As such, quantum error ...correction is needed to fully harness the power of quantum computing (QC). Current projections indicate that \gt 1,000 physical qubits will be required to encode one error-corrected qubit 1. Implementing a system with 1,000 error-corrected qubits will likely require moving from the contemporary paradigm where control and readout of the quantum processor is carried out using racks of room temperature electronics to one in which integrated control/readout circuits are located within the cryogenic environment and connected to the quantum processor through superconducting interconnects 2. This is a major challenge, as the cryo ICs must be high performance and very low power (eventually \lt 1 mW/qubit). In this paper, we report the design and system-level characterization of a prototype cryo-CMOS IC for performing XY gate operations on transmon (XMON) qubits.
Abstract
The challenge underlying superconducting quantum computing is to remove materials bottleneck for highly coherent quantum devices. The nonuniformity and complex structural components in the ...underlying quantum circuits often lead to local electric field concentration, charge scattering, dissipation and ultimately decoherence. Here we visualize interface dipole heterogeneous distribution of individual Al/AlO
x
/Al junctions employed in transmon qubits by broadband terahertz scanning near-field microscopy that enables the non-destructive and contactless identification of defective boundaries in nano-junctions at an extremely precise nanoscale level. Our THz nano-imaging tool reveals an asymmetry across the junction in electromagnetic wave-junction coupling response that manifests as hot (high intensity) vs cold (low intensity) spots in the spatial electrical field structures and correlates with defected boundaries from the multi-angle deposition processes in Josephson junction fabrication inside qubit devices. The demonstrated local electromagnetic scattering method offers high sensitivity, allowing for reliable device defect detection in the pursuit of improved quantum circuit fabrication for ultimately optimizing coherence times.
This report demonstrates the most spatially-coherent electron source ever reported. A coherence angle of 14.3 ± 0.5° was measured, indicating a virtual source size of 1.7 ± 0.6 Å using an extraction ...voltage of 89.5 V. The nanotips under study were crafted using a spatially-confined, field-assisted nitrogen etch which removes material from the periphery of the tip apex resulting in a sharp, tungsten-nitride stabilized, high-aspect ratio source. The coherence properties are deduced from holographic measurements in a low-energy electron point source microscope with a carbon nanotube bundle as sample. Using the virtual source size and emission current the brightness normalized to 100 kV is found to be 7.9 × 108 A sr−1 cm2.
The promise of quantum computers is that certain computational tasks might be executed exponentially faster on a quantum processor than on a classical processor
. A fundamental challenge is to build ...a high-fidelity processor capable of running quantum algorithms in an exponentially large computational space. Here we report the use of a processor with programmable superconducting qubits
to create quantum states on 53 qubits, corresponding to a computational state-space of dimension 2
(about 10
). Measurements from repeated experiments sample the resulting probability distribution, which we verify using classical simulations. Our Sycamore processor takes about 200 seconds to sample one instance of a quantum circuit a million times-our benchmarks currently indicate that the equivalent task for a state-of-the-art classical supercomputer would take approximately 10,000 years. This dramatic increase in speed compared to all known classical algorithms is an experimental realization of quantum supremacy
for this specific computational task, heralding a much-anticipated computing paradigm.
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