Scalable, nanomechanical acoustic processor for high quality quantum computing

Stanford researchers at Prof. Safavi-Naeini's laboratory have developed a high quality, scalable processor architecture using small, phononic crystal resonators for read-out and long-lived storage in superconducting circuit quantum computing. This quantum acoustic system couples individual qubits to clusters of coherent mechanical resonators. Because each qubit controls multiple resonators, the hardware is extremely space-efficient for greater functionality with fewer elements, smaller size and less complicated controls. Furthermore, the patterning of the phononic crystals mitigates both acoustic and electromagnetic losses and its compact size (a few microns) facilitates scaling. Overall, this hybrid quantum information processing platform offers quantum volume 3-fold higher than an analogous system using traditional superconducting microwave circuits with electromagnetic resonators.

Stage of Research
Proof-of-concept - The inventors have demonstrated the proof-of-concept for coupling the phononic crystal resonator architecture to superconducting devices. The nanomechanical resonators offer both very long lifetime and small size with an estimated quantum volume of 220.

Prototype chip – The inventors continue to develop a prototype of entire chip with the single-qubit multiple mechanical mode system.