Dispersive measurements of superconducting qubit coherence with a fast, latching readout

TL;DR

This paper introduces a rapid, latching dispersive readout method for superconducting qubits, enabling fast measurement of qubit states with high fidelity and improved signal-to-noise ratio, facilitating advanced quantum experiments.

Contribution

It presents a novel dispersive measurement technique using bifurcation amplification that allows nanosecond-scale, latching readout of superconducting qubits at an optimal bias point.

Findings

Achieved fast, high-contrast Rabi oscillation and Ramsey fringe measurements.

Demonstrated improved signal-to-noise ratio in qubit state detection.

Enabled characterization of relaxation processes related to measurement speed.

Abstract

The "quantronium" is a superconducting qubit consisting of a split Cooper pair box in which a large tunnel junction is inserted. This circuit has a special bias point where the Larmor frequency is, to first order, insensitive to fluctuations in the bias parameters -- the charge of the box island and the phase of the large junction. At this optimal working point, the state of the qubit can be determined by dispersive measurements that probe the second derivative of the state energy with respect to these bias parameters. We use the quantronium phase degree of freedom to perform a non-linear, dispersive measurement of its inductive response using bifurcation amplification. This novel readout projects the state of the qubit in a few nanoseconds, and its latching property allows us to record the resulting information in a few hundred nanoseconds. We have measured, using this technique, Rabi oscillations and Ramsey fringes with an improved signal to noise ratio and contrast. The speed of this new readout scheme also opens the door for a new class of experiments which would characterize the relaxation processes associated with the measurement protocol.