A graphene transmon operating at 1 T

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of a graphene-based transmon qubit that operates reliably at magnetic fields as high as 1 Tesla, significantly surpassing previous limitations of conventional superconducting qubits.

Contribution

The authors integrate ballistic graphene Josephson junctions into superconducting circuits to create the first graphene transmon capable of functioning at high magnetic fields, up to 1 T.

Findings

Device remains insensitive to magnetic fields up to 1 T

Energy level spectroscopy confirms stable operation at high magnetic fields

Graphene transmon exhibits electrically tunable properties

Abstract

A superconducting transmon qubit resilient to strong magnetic fields is an important component for proposed topological and hybrid quantum computing (QC) schemes. Transmon qubits consist of a Josephson junction (JJ) shunted by a large capacitance, coupled to a high quality factor superconducting resonator. In conventional transmon devices, the JJ is made from an Al/AlO$_x$/Al tunnel junction which ceases operation above the critical magnetic field of Al, 10 mT. Alternative junction technologies are therefore required to push the operation of these qubits into strong magnetic fields. Graphene JJs are one such candidate due to their high quality, ballistic transport and electrically tunable critical current densities. Importantly the monolayer structure of graphene protects the JJ from orbital interference effects that would otherwise inhibit operation at high magnetic field. Here we report the integration of ballistic graphene JJs into microwave frequency superconducting circuits to create the first graphene transmons. The electric tunability allows the characteristic band dispersion of graphene to be resolved via dispersive microwave spectroscopy. We demonstrate that the device is insensitive to the applied field and perform energy level spectroscopy of the transmon at 1 T, more than an order of magnitude higher than previous studies.