ECE 405D - Superconducting Quantum Circuits

This course offers applications of superconductivity in quantum information devices and circuits at microwave frequencies. Introducing the basic physics of superconductivity, superconducting transmission lines and cavity resonators are presented as the elementary passive components in quantum circuits. Josephson junctions as an active element in superconducting electronics is introduced and it is shown how a qubit can be constructed based on various two-level system manipulated in Josephson junctions. Three superconducting qubit archetypes, i.e. charge, flux, and phase, are introduced along with some hybrid qubits such as transmon and fluxonium. Single qubit operation and qubit coupling in the form of circuit cavity electrodynamics and their associated qubit readout are discussed. Some existing quantum computers such as IBM Q System One and Google Sycamore are briefly introduced.