Superconducting Quantum Bits of Information—Coherence and Design Improvements

This article reviews recent progress in superconducting quantum bits, including major improvements in design and coherence times. It first provides an overview of the basics of modern superconducting qubit devices and their architectures before turning to single-qubit Hamiltonians and reference frames. It then examines how decoherence originates with noise and shows how to characterize and mitigate this noise using magnetic-resonance-type pulse sequences. It also describes the first-generation superconducting qubits and the now-dominant circuit-quantum electrodynamics architecture in which qubits are coupled to microwave resonators. Finally, it considers several improved designs of superconducting qubits in which coherence times have been significantly improved by minimizing the sensitivity to fluctuating impurities and the coupling to external modes.