Charge qubit

Circuit diagram of a Cooper pair box circuit. The island (dotted line) is formed by the superconducting electrode between the gate capacitor and the junction capacitance.

In quantum computing, a charge qubit is a superconducting qubit whose basis states are charge states (i.e. states which represent the presence or absence of excess Cooper pairs in the island). A charge qubit is formed by a tiny superconducting island (also known as a Cooper-pair box) coupled by a Josephson junction to a superconducting reservoir (see figure). The state of the qubit is determined by the number of Cooper pairs which have tunneled across the junction. In contrast with the charge state of an atomic or molecular ion, the charge states of such an "island" involve a macroscopic number of conduction electrons of the island. The quantum superposition of charge states can be achieved by tuning the gate voltage U that controls the chemical potential of the island. The charge qubit is typically read-out by electrostatically coupling the island to an extremely sensitive electrometer such as the radio-frequency single-electron transistor.

Typical T1 times for a charge qubit are on the order of 1-2 μs.

References

• V. Bouchiat, D. Vion, P. Joyez, D. Esteve and M. H. Devoret, "Quantum coherence with a single Cooper pair", Physica Scripta T76, 165-170 (1998)

• Y. Nakamura, Yu. A. Pashkin and J. S. Tsai, "Coherent control of macroscopic quantum states in a single-Cooper-pair box", Nature 398, 786-788 (1999)

• K. W. Lehnert, B. A. Turek, K. Bladh, L. F. Spietz, D. Gunnarsson, P. Delsing and R. J. Schoelkopf, "Measurement of the excited-state lifetime of a microelectronic circuit", Physical Review Letters 90, 027002 (2003)