• Open Access

Robust Concurrent Remote Entanglement Between Two Superconducting Qubits

A. Narla, S. Shankar, M. Hatridge, Z. Leghtas, K. M. Sliwa, E. Zalys-Geller, S. O. Mundhada, W. Pfaff, L. Frunzio, R. J. Schoelkopf, and M. H. Devoret
Phys. Rev. X 6, 031036 – Published 6 September 2016

Abstract

Entangling two remote quantum systems that never interact directly is an essential primitive in quantum information science and forms the basis for the modular architecture of quantum computing. When protocols to generate these remote entangled pairs rely on using traveling single-photon states as carriers of quantum information, they can be made robust to photon losses, unlike schemes that rely on continuous variable states. However, efficiently detecting single photons is challenging in the domain of superconducting quantum circuits because of the low energy of microwave quanta. Here, we report the realization of a robust form of concurrent remote entanglement based on a novel microwave photon detector implemented in the superconducting circuit quantum electrodynamics platform of quantum information. Remote entangled pairs with a fidelity of 0.57±0.01 are generated at 200 Hz. Our experiment opens the way for the implementation of the modular architecture of quantum computation with superconducting qubits.

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  • Received 10 May 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.6.031036

This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Quantum Information, Science & Technology

Authors & Affiliations

A. Narla*, S. Shankar, M. Hatridge, Z. Leghtas, K. M. Sliwa, E. Zalys-Geller, S. O. Mundhada, W. Pfaff, L. Frunzio, R. J. Schoelkopf, and M. H. Devoret

  • Department of Applied Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA

  • *Corresponding author. anirudh.narla@yale.edu
  • Corresponding author. michel.devoret@yale.edu

Popular Summary

Operations in communication and computing that are thought to be impossible or counterintuitive can be realized using quantum-mechanical devices. However, like their classical counterparts, quantum computers have to operate on information stored in different distant modules. This situation can be challenging because quantum mechanics forbids directly copying a quantum signal and transmitting it to another location. The solution relies on generating an entangled state of two distant qubits, a quantum resource in which information is not contained in each qubit separately but is instead solely contained in nonlocal correlations between the two qubits. Here, we produce such remote entanglement in qubits based on superconducting circuits.

Our experimental setup employs single microwave photons as the carriers of quantum information between remote locations, and it operates at cryogenic temperatures (20 mK). Because we can precisely control the frequency, amplitude, and spatiotemporal shape of the microwave photons, we are able to perform the necessary erasure of their path information during the joint measurement of radiation coming from two remote qubits, thereby rendering them indistinguishable. We can accordingly implement a protocol in which the detection of one photon selects out an entangled state of the two qubits. The fidelity of the entanglement generation turns out to be robust to photon losses and is therefore conducive to scaling up over larger distances.

Our experiment expands the range of quantum phenomena accessible to microwave radiation, and it opens up the possibility of using entanglement as a resource in superconducting qubits to perform more complex quantum operations like nonlocal gates and quantum-state teleportation. We accordingly expect that our findings will pave the way for other quantum-information applications.

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Vol. 6, Iss. 3 — July - September 2016

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