Quantum computers could someday solve pressing problems that are too convoluted for classical computers, such as modeling complex molecular interactions to streamline drug discovery and materials development.
But to build a superconducting quantum computer that is large and resilient enough for real-world applications, scientists must precisely engineer thousands of quantum circuits so they perform operations with the lowest possible error rate.
To help scientists design more predictable circuits, researchers from MIT and Lincoln Laboratory developed a technique to measure a property that can unexpectedly cause a superconducting quantum circuit to deviate from its expected behavior. Their analysis revealed the source of these distortions, known as second-order harmonic corrections, leading to underperforming circuit architectures.
The MIT researchers fabricated a device to detect second-order harmonic corrections, identify their origin, and precisely measure their strength. This technique could help scientists deliberately design quantum circuits that can counteract the effects of these deviations.
This is especially important in larger and more complicated quantum circuits, where the negative impact of second-order harmonic corrections can be amplified.
“As we make our quantum computers bigger and we want to have more precise control over the parameters of these devices, identifying and measuring these effects is going to be important for us to have a precise understanding of how these systems are constructed. It is always important to keep diving down into the circuit to see if there is an effect you didn’t expect, which impacts how your device is performing,” says Max Hays, a research scientist in the Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) and co-lead author of a paper on this research.
Hays is joined on the paper by co-lead author Junghyun Kim, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) graduate student in the EQuS group; senior author William D. Oliver, the Henry Ellis Warren (1894) Professor of EECS and professor of physics, leader of the EQuS group, director of the Center for Quantum Engineering, and associate director of RLE; as well as others at MIT and Lincoln Laboratory. The research appears today in Nature Physics.
A pair-wise problem
In a quantum computer that utilizes superconducting circuits, which is one of many potential computing platforms, Josephson junctions are critical elements that enable the transfer and manipulation of information. These devices utilize two superconducting wires that are brought very close together, with a nanometer-scale barrier between them. Like a traditional circuit, the electric charge in Josephson junctions is carried by electrons.
But in a superconducting circuit, charge-carrying electrons pair up, forming what are called Cooper pairs. These Cooper pairs can “quantum tunnel” through the barrier between the two wires, transporting current from one wire to the other.
Cooper pairs can usually only tunnel one pair at a time, which is a key property that makes quantum computation possible.
“If you try to force more Cooper pairs through, it just doesn’t work. This non-linear effect is extremely important for all our circuits. If we didn’t have that effect, then we wouldn’t be able to control or manipulate any quantum information that we store in these circuits,” Hays explains.
But sometimes, Cooper pairs can unexpectedly squeeze through the barrier two at a time, an effect that is known as a second-order harmonic correction. This effect limits the performance of a quantum circuit that has been configured to only allow single-pair tunneling.
“If two Cooper pairs tunnel at the same time, then the assumption we used to build our circuit doesn’t apply anymore. We need to fix the circuit so it can handle that,” Kim says.
But before they can fix the circuit, scientists need to know the source and strength of these distortions.
To obtain this information, the MIT researchers fabricated a quantum circuit so it would be very sensitive to these effects. Essentially, the device is designed to suppress the quantum tunneling process of single Cooper pairs, while allowing the two-pair tunneling process to continue.
In this way, they can detect the presence of second-order harmonic corrections and precisely measure their strength.
Straight to the source
They can also use this circuit to pinpoint the source of these harmonics, which helps researchers identify the best way to correct for them.
There are two potential sources of second-order harmonics — one source is intrinsic to the dynamics of the Josephson junction and the other is caused by the wires connecting the junction to other circuit elements.
While prior research had indicated the second-order harmonics could be due to the dynamics of the junction, the MIT researchers found that additional inductance — the tendency to oppose changes in the flow of electric current —from wires in the circuit was the actual source in their devices.
“This is important because, if we know where the second-order harmonic correction is coming from, we can predict how strong it is likely to be, and use that information to engineer more predictable circuits that will hopefully perform better,” Hays says.
In the future, the researchers want to design experiments that more accurately predict how a device will perform when second-order harmonic corrections occur. They also want to study other sources of second-order harmonic corrections and whether those sources could have negative impacts on a circuit under different fabrication conditions.
This work is funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage, the U.S. Air Force, the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies, and the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program at MIT.