Article abstract


Nature Physics 3, 119 - 125 (2007)
doi:10.1038/nphys509

Subject Categories: Quantum physics | Condensed-matter physics | Information theory and computation

Quantum non-demolition measurement of a superconducting two-level system

A. Lupas cedilcu1, S. Saito1,2, T. Picot1, P. C. de Groot1, C. J. P. M. Harmans1 and J. E. Mooij1


In quantum mechanics, the process of measurement is a subtle interplay between extraction of information and disturbance of the state of the quantum system. A quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement minimizes this disturbance by using a particular system—detector interaction that preserves the eigenstates of a suitable operator of the quantum system. This leads to an ideal projective measurement. We present experiments in which we carry out two consecutive measurements on a quantum two-level system, a superconducting flux qubit, by probing the hysteretic behaviour of a coupled nonlinear resonator. The large correlation between the results of the two measurements demonstrates the QND nature of the readout method. The fact that a QND measurement is possible for superconducting qubits strengthens the notion that these fabricated mesoscopic systems are to be regarded as fundamental quantum objects. Our results are also relevant for quantum-information processing for protocols such as state preparation and error correction.

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  1. Quantum Transport Group, Kavli Institute of NanoScience, Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1, 2628 CJ Delft, The Netherlands
  2. NTT Basic Research Laboratories, NTT Corporation, 3-1, Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi, Kanagawa, 243-0198, Japan

Correspondence to: A. Lupas cedilcu1 Present address: Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Département de Physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France

Correspondence to: A. Lupas cedilcu1 e-mail: Adrian.Lupascu@lkb.ens.fr


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