Superconducting-qubit readout via low-backaction electro-optic transduction

Entangling microwave-frequency superconducting quantum processors through optical light at ambient temperature would enable means of secure communication and distributed quantum information processing¹. However, transducing quantum signals between these disparate regimes of the electro-magnetic spectrum remains an outstanding goal^2-9, and interfacing superconducting qubits, which are constrained to operate at millikelvin temperatures, with electro-optic transducers presents considerable challenges owing to the deleterious effects of optical photons on superconductors^9,10. Moreover, many remote entanglement protocols^11-14 require multiple qubit gates both preceding and following the upconversion of the quantum state, and thus an ideal transducer should impart minimal backaction¹⁵ on the qubit. Here we demonstrate readout of a superconducting transmon qubit through a low-backaction electro-optomechanical transducer. The modular nature of the transducer and circuit quantum electrodynamics system used in this work enable complete isolation of the qubit from optical photons, and the backaction on the qubit from the transducer is less than that imparted by thermal radiation from the environment. Moderate improvements in the transducer bandwidth and the added noise will enable us to leverage the full suite of tools available in circuit quantum electrodynamics to demonstrate transduction of non-classical signals from a superconducting qubit to the optical domain.

First Results from a Microwave Cavity Axion Search at 24 μeV

We report on the first results from a new microwave cavity search for dark matter axions with masses above 20  μeV. We exclude axion models with two-photon coupling g_{aγγ}≳2×10^{-14}  GeV^{-1} over the range 23.55<m_{a}<24.0  μeV. These results represent two important achievements. First, we have reached cosmologically relevant sensitivity an order of magnitude higher in mass than any existing limits. Second, by incorporating a dilution refrigerator and Josephson parametric amplifier, we have demonstrated total noise approaching the standard quantum limit for the first time in an axion search.