Andrew Houck, Princeton: High-Coherence Superconducting Qubits

Zoom Details

Seminar

2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Zoom Link: For Zoom Information Please Contact: QF-admin@cnsi.ucsb.edu

Speaker

Andrew Houck
Professer of Electrical Engineering
Princeton University

Bio

Andrew Houck is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University and Director of the Princeton Quantum Institute. His current research centers on quantum computing and quantum simulation with superconducting circuits. He teaches quantum information and has helped develop a new series of freshman physics and math courses that significantly reduces the achievement gap among first-year students. Houck serves as the Deputy Director of the Co-Design Center for Quantum Advantage, a DOE center run out of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and as Past Chair of the Division of Quantum Information in the American Physical Society.

Abstract

I will discuss two approaches towards the development of high-coherence superconducting qubits. First, I will show how encoding a qubit in logical quantum states with wavefunctions characterized by disjoint support and robust energies can offer simultaneous protection against relaxation and pure dephasing. Using a circuit-quantum-electrodynamics architecture, we experimentally realize a superconducting 0-pi qubit, which hosts protected states suitable for quantum-information processing. The measured relaxation (1.6 ms) and dephasing times (25 μs) demonstrate that our implementation of the 0−pi circuit not only broadens the family of superconducting qubits, but also represents a promising candidate for the building block of a fault-tolerant quantum processor. Second, I will show how a rigorous approach towards materials engineering can improve coherence even in traditional transmon devices. In particular, with relatively simple changes, we have developed a reliable process to make 2D transmon qubits with coherence in excess of 0.3 ms.