Blogs

Subsampling Techniques for Achieving Waveform Precision in Picoseconds

11.11.2022

An arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) can generate pulses with a timing resolution much finer than its sampling period. Users are often unaware of this capability, yet it enables highly precise timing control in application use cases such as NV center dynamical decoupling, flux pulse width control, AWG channel deskew, and IQ mixer calibration...

How Double-Superheterodyne Compares with IQ Mixing in Qubit Experiments

08.11.2022

Were you ever curious about how the double-superheterodyne frequency conversion compares with IQ mixing when tested on real qubits? This blog post introduces such a comparison published in a recent preprint paper by the ETH QuDev lab. One of its main results hints at double-superheterodyne enabling a higher gate fidelity and lower state leakage rate than a standard IQ mixing approach!

Synchronizing Multiple AWG Channels

09.09.2022

Does your application require multiple AWG channels with precise and stable timing synchronization? In this blog post, we will show how to achieve this with the HDAWG Arbitrary Waveform Generator for setup sizes ranging from few channels up to 144. We demonstrate 3 methods suitable for different use cases.

Qubit and Resonator Spectroscopy at the Speed Limit: Your Measurements. Faster.

23.06.2022

Getting your measurements up and running as fast as possible is a priority at Zurich Instruments. Together with one of our Application Scientists, researchers at the ETH Zurich - Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) Quantum Computing Hub were able to install the SHFQC Qubit Controller and perform qubit spectroscopy, Ramsey, and Rabi measurements on 5 qubits in parallel in half a day. The ability of our instruments to perform fast frequency sweeping was at the heart of the fast qubit tune-up procedures. Learn more in this blog post.

A Fast and Integrated Qubit Control System - SHFQC Launch Event

18.03.2022

On March 3rd, Jan Benhelm, Bruno Küng and I were thrilled to welcome a diverse audience from all over the world to present our newest instrument - the SHFQC Qubit Controller. In the first part of the webinar Jan explained how the SHFQC integrates a full qubit control system for...

Randomized Benchmarking in Seconds

20.05.2021

Randomized benchmarking (RB) is a widely used tool in quantum information science to determine qubit fidelity and to characterize individual qubit gates. It is also an excellent example of a quantum experiment with advanced requirements on the control hardware and software. For an RB experiment, we apply random sequences of...

Practical Active Qubit Reset

05.03.2021

When working with qubits, it’s essential to have a reliable state preparation. The easiest method for superconducting qubits is to passively wait for the qubit to decay into its ground state, but it’s slow and has poor fidelity. Active qubit reset decreases considerably the initialization time, while greatly increasing the...

Automating IQ Mixer Calibration on the HDIQ

03.02.2021

As a crucial step in the bring-up of superconducting experiments, IQ mixer calibration normally requires multiple instruments from different parties and manual cabling work. This blog post describes how to use the Zurich Instruments HDIQ, HDAWG and UHFQA (or other UHF instruments) to automate IQ mixer calibration and: Simplify the...

AWG Precompensation for High-Fidelity CZ Gates in Transmon Qubits

02.11.2019

High quantum gate fidelity is essential for all quantum hardware platforms. Temporal sensitivity to flux noise and flux pulse distortion can pose major limitations to achieving high fidelity with repeatable two-qubit gates in transmon qubits. In a recent publication, Rol and collaborators demonstrated a fast (40 ns), low-leakage (0.1%), high-fidelity...

Are Your Parametric Two-Qubit Gates Limited by the Driving AWG?

13.09.2019

If you are using the Zurich Instruments HDAWG, the answer is no. Let's see why. Parametrically modulated superconducting qubit gates (parametric gates) are usually accomplished by RF-modulation – typically several hundred MHz – of the flux through a mediating coupler element or qubit. Usually, many dBm of signal power are...

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