Quantum computing with Josephson junction circuits

This work concerns the study of Josephson junction circuits in the context of their usability for quantum computing. The zero-voltage state of a current-biased Josephson junction has a set of metastable quantum energy levels. If a junction is well isolated from its environment, it will be possible to use the two lowest states as a qubit in a quantum computer.; I first examine the meaning of isolation theoretically. Using a master equation, I analyzed the effect of dissipation on escape rates and suggested a simple method, population depletion technique, to measure the relaxation time (T1). Using a stochastic Bloch equation to analyze the dependence of microwave resonance peak width on current noise, I found decoherence due to current noise depends on the noise spectrum. For high frequency noise with a cutoff frequency fc much larger than 1/T1, I found decoherence due to noise can be described by a dephasing rate that is proportional to the noise spectral density. However, for low frequency noise such that its cutoff frequency fc is much smaller than 1/T 1, decoherence due to noise depends on the total rms current noise.; I then analyze and test a few qubit isolation schemes, including resistive isolation, inductor-capacitor (LC) isolation, half-wavelength resonant isolation and inductor-junction (LJ) isolation. I found the resistive isolation scheme has a severe heating problem. Macroscopic quantum tunneling and energy level quantization were observed in the LC isolated Nb/AlOx/Nb and AL/ALOx/Al junction qubits at 25 mK. Relaxation times of 4--12 ns and spectroscopic coherence times of 1--3 ns were obtained for these LC isolated qubits. I found the half-wavelength isolated junction qubit has a relaxation time of about 20 ns measured by the population-depletion techniques, but no energy levels were observed in this qubit. Experimental results suggest the LJ isolated qubit has a longer relaxation and coherence times than all my previously examined samples. Using a microwave pulse technique, a relaxation time of 50 ns was measured on this sample, the spectroscopic coherence time obtained using continuous microwave pumping is about 5--8 ns. Coherent quantum oscillations (Rabi oscillations) were also observed on this sample with a decay time of around 10 ns for a |0 >→ |1 > level spacing of 7.6 GHz. The relaxation times are much smaller than what I would expect from my designs for all isolation schemes. Possible reasons for this inconsistency were discussed.; Using microwave spectroscopy techniques, I probed quantum phenomena in a coupled macroscopic three-qubit system that is comprised of two Nb/AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions and an LC resonator. The measured spectrum at 25 mK in the frequency range 4--15 GHz agrees well with quantum mechanical calculations, consistent with the existence of entangled states between the three degrees of freedom. These entangled states and a first-order strong coupling between two junction qubits open the possibility of using a resonator as a data bus for information storage and manipulation in a multi-qubit system. The measurements also demonstrate spectroscopy is a powerful tool and can be used to study a composite system with many qubits.