We have studied a circuit consisting of a Cooper pair transistor in parallel with a SQUID- a superconducting loop containing two Josephson junctions. The transistor is a small superconducting island connected to the external circuit by two Josephson junctions. Depending on the value of an applied gate voltage, the island can contain either zero or one Cooper pair. The transistor realises a quantum bit, called a “charge qubit” as its two states |-> and |+> are a superposition of these two island charge states. The SQUID is a strongly non-linear resonator. This resonator can contain zero or one elementary excitations called plasmons, giving states designated by |0> and |1>. It constitutes a second quantum bit, called a “phase qubit”, which is controlled by an applied magnetic field and by the current flowing through the loop.

Fig. 1 : Scanning Electron Microscope image of (a) the transistor showing the superconducting island connected via two junctions to the SQUID and the gate that controls the charge on the island. (b) coupled circuit with the SQUID in the centre and transistor at the left.
We have measured the transition probability between the coupled ground state |0,-> and the first two excited states |1,-> and |0,+> as a function of the frequency of a microwave field applied at the transistor grid or on the SQUID. These measurements provide the energy spectrum of the coupled circuit as a function of the external control parameters (grid voltage, magnetic flux through the SQUID). The frequency of the resonant transitions between the levels are of order 10 GHz corresponding to energies of about 10-23 J. The experiments are done in a dilution cryostat (T= 30 mK) to avoid thermal population of the excited states.
When the two qubits are in resonance, the coupling lifts the degeneracy and produces anti level crossing. The quantum states get entangled. With our circuit, we have observed a controllable coupling between the two qubits. We have obtained a detailed description of the energy spectrum as well as the coupling using a quantum mechanical model.

Fig. 2 : Energy spectrum of the coupled circuit as a function of grid voltage. The lifting of the degeneracy at ng=1/2 reveals the coupling strength between the two qubits. Quantum theory without coupling (dotted traces) and with coupling (continuous curves).
Past PhD : Aurelien Fay
Some references :
[1]- Entangled states in a Josephson charge qubit coupled to a superconducting resonator.
O. Buisson and F. W. J. Hekking.
Macroscopic Quantum Coherence and Computing (Kluwer Academic Plenum PublishersNew York, 2001). Cond-mat/0008275.
[2]- Cooper pair box coupled to a current biased Josephson junction
F. W. J. Hekking, O. Buisson, F. Balestro, and M.G. Vergniory
Proceedings of the Moriond conference, January 2001. Cond-mat/0201284.
[3] - Strong tunable coupling between a charge and a phase qubit
A. Fay, E. Hoskinson, F. Lecocq, L. Lévy, F.W.J. Hekking, W. Guichard, O. Buisson.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 187003. arXiv:0712.3970v1.

Cristaux Electroniques - Cristelec -
Étude des états électroniques inhabituels qui interviennent quand les électrons sont corrélés, ce qui inclue les phénomènes de basse dimensionnalité, les ordres électroniques 3D complexes, les verres de Coulomb et les nouveaux types de supraconductivité.

Micro et NanoMagnétisme - MNM -
Complementary expertise in fabrication, characterisation, and simulations for studies in nanomagnetism with applications in spin electronics and micro-systems

Surfaces, Interfaces et Nanostructures - SIN -
Etudes des structures atomique et électronique, locales ou de basse dimensionnalité, pour le magnétisme, la catalyse et les systèmes fortement corrélés, soutenues par le développement de techniques synchrotron de rayons X et la microscopie tunnel

Systèmes Hybrides de basse dimensionnalité - HYBRIDE -
Propriétés électroniques, optiques, vibrationnelles, mécaniques, et leur couplage à l’échelle quantique, de nouveaux systèmes hybrides (nanotubes, graphène, matériaux bi-dimensionnels, fonctionnalisés) que l’équipe développe.