Superconducting persistent-current qubit

We present the design of a superconducting qubit that has circulating currents of opposite sign as its two states. The circuit consists of three nanoscale aluminum Josephson junctions connected in a superconducting loop and controlled by magnetic fields. The advantages of this qubit are that it can be made insensitive to background charges in the substrate, the flux in the two states can be detected with a superconducting quantum interference device, and the states can be manipulated with magnetic fields. Coupled systems of qubits are also discussed as well as sources of decoherence.