The quantromon: a qubit-resonator system with orthogonal qubit and readout modes

Abstract

The measurement of a superconducting qubit is implemented by coupling it to a resonator. The common choice is transverse coupling, which, in the dispersive approximation, introduces an interaction term that enables the measurement. This cross-Kerr term provides a qubit-state dependent dispersive shift in the resonator frequency with the device parameters chosen carefully to get sufficient signal while minimizing Purcell decay of the qubit. We introduce a two-mode circuit, nicknamed quantromon, with two orthogonal modes implementing a qubit and a resonator. Unlike before, where the coupling term emerges as a perturbative expansion, the quantromon has intrinsic cross-Kerr coupling by design. Our experiments implemented in a hybrid 2D–3D circuit QED architecture demonstrate some unique features of the quantromon like weak dependence of the dispersive shift on the qubit-resonator detuning and intrinsic Purcell protection. In a tunable qubit-frequency device, we show that the dispersive shift (⁠2χ/2π ) changes by only 0.8 MHz, while the qubit-resonator detuning (Δ⁠/2π⁠) is varied between 0.398 and 3.288 GHz. We also demonstrate Purcell protection in a second device where we tune the orthogonality between the two modes. Finally, we demonstrate a single-shot readout fidelity of 98.3%, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art measurements without the use of a parametric amplifier and suggests a potential simplification of the measurement circuitry for scaling up quantum processors.