Extending the lifetime of a quantum bit with error correction in superconducting circuits.

Quantum error correction (QEC) can overcome the errors experienced by qubits and is therefore an essential component of a future quantum computer. To implement QEC, a qubit is redundantly encoded in a higher-dimensional space using quantum states with carefully tailored symmetry properties. Projective measurements of these parity-type observables provide error syndrome information, with which errors can be corrected via simple operations.

Characterizing entanglement of an artificial atom and a cavity cat state with Bell's inequality.

The Schrodinger's cat thought experiment highlights the counterintuitive concept of entanglement in macroscopically distinguishable systems. The hallmark of entanglement is the detection of strong correlations between systems, most starkly demonstrated by the violation of a Bell inequality. No violation of a Bell inequality has been observed for a system entangled with a superposition of coherent states, known as a cat state.

Hardware-efficient autonomous quantum memory protection.

We propose to encode a quantum bit of information in a superposition of coherent states of an oscillator, with four different phases. Our encoding in a single cavity mode, together with a protection protocol, significantly reduces the error rate due to photon loss. This protection is ensured by an efficient quantum error correction scheme employing the nonlinearity provided by a single physical qubit coupled to the cavity.

Deterministically encoding quantum information using 100-photon Schrödinger cat states.

In contrast to a single quantum bit, an oscillator can store multiple excitations and coherences provided one has the ability to generate and manipulate complex multiphoton states. We demonstrate multiphoton control by using a superconducting transmon qubit coupled to a waveguide cavity resonator with a highly ideal off-resonant coupling. This dispersive interaction is much greater than decoherence rates and higher-order nonlinearities to allow simultaneous manipulation of hundreds of photons.

Manipulating quantum pathways on the fly.

The expectation value of a quantum system observable can be written as a sum over interfering pathway amplitudes. In this Letter, we demonstrate for the fist time adaptive manipulation of quantum pathways using the Hamiltonian encoding-observable decoding (HE-OD) technique. The principles of HE-OD are illustrated for population transfer in atomic rubidium using shaped femtosecond laser pulses.

Observation of quantum state collapse and revival due to the single-photon Kerr effect.

To create and manipulate non-classical states of light for quantum information protocols, a strong, nonlinear interaction at the single-photon level is required. One approach to the generation of suitable interactions is to couple photons to atoms, as in the strong coupling regime of cavity quantum electrodynamic systems. In these systems, however, the quantum state of the light is only indirectly controlled by manipulating the atoms.