Alice & Bob and ENS Lyon Demonstrate DC-Biased SQUID Architecture for Multi-Photon Cat Qubit Dissipation
AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication
Alice & Bob and researchers at ENS Lyon reported experimental validation of a DC‑voltage‑biased SQUID coupler that creates multi‑photon dissipation for stabilising cat‑qubits. The approach replaces conventional high‑power microwave pumps with a micro‑volt DC bias, removing drive‑induced Kerr nonlinearities and simplifying cryogenic wiring. In the test device a high‑Q memory resonator at 4.0429 GHz is linked to a lossy buffer resonator at 7.56 GHz via a flux‑tunable SQUID. By adjusting the bias the team triggered selective 1‑to‑1, 2‑to‑1 and 4‑to‑1 photon conversion, achieving a two‑photon swap rate of 18.2 MHz and an effective two‑photon dissipation rate of 0.48 MHz, confirmed by Wigner tomography. The method also enables four‑component cat qubits without complex microwave control, promising a more scalable architecture for superconducting bosonic codes today.
💡 Why It Matters
- · By eliminating microwave pumps, the technique cuts heat load and hardware complexity, clearing a path toward denser quantum processors that can maintain cat‑qubit coherence longer.