Zurich Instruments Quantum Technologies Newsletter - Edition Q1/2021

IQ mixer calibration is a routine operation in superconducting experiments, and it normally involves several instruments from different providers and substantial manual cabling work. Simplifying the calibration routine and reducing the occurrence of potential failures due to cable reconnection shortens significantly the time invested on system characterization. In this blog post, Chunyan Shi describes how to combine the Zurich Instruments HDIQ, HDAWG and UHFQA to realize automatic IQ mixer calibration.

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Reliable state preparation for superconducting qubits is of crucial importance. Passively waiting for a qubit to decay into its ground state is the easiest preparation method, but it's slow and comes with poor fidelities. Active qubit reset decreases initialization time while greatly increasing the fidelity of the prepared state. In this blog post, Andrea Corna shows how to perform low-latency active qubit and qutrit reset using the PQSC Programmable Quantum System Controller on small and larger systems.

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Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamond are a promising candidate for many quantum technology and sensing applications, with research showing how they can be used as nanoscale sensors and as long-lived solid-state qubits. This application page discusses some of the requirements and challenges involved in coherently controlling the spin state of an NV center, and shows how the Zurich Instruments HDAWG Arbitrary Waveform Generator can help to overcome those challenges.

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LabOne^® is the cockpit for instrument control and signal acquisition. Thanks to its high-performance data processing and real-time visualization, LabOne ensures that measurements are efficient and reliable. The latest version of LabOne (21.02) has just been released, and it includes built-in firmware updates for our instruments. All components of the Quantum Computing Control System (QCCS) benefit from this release. Some of the highlights of LabOne 21.02 are:

• Full support for the SHFQA Quantum Analyzer.
• Over 60 ns of latency reduction for real-time qubit readout on the UHFQA Quantum Analyzer.
• Reset functionality for the HDAWG, the UHFQA and the PQSC to start from a known configuration at any point in time.
• Improved stability and reduced latency for the ZSync link.
• API support for Python 3.9.
• Python driver for the HDIQ IQ Modulator.

To improve the usability of our technical documentation, we have been developing HTML versions of our user manuals and have just released the HTML-based LabOne Programming Manual and SHFQA Quantum Analyzer User Manual. An offline version of the Programming Manual is provided to all users with the LabOne installer.

Now we would be thrilled to hear from you: to let us know what you think of our HTML-based documentation, send your feedback to us by clicking on the 'Feedback' button in the top-right corner of the Documentation page or by writing an email to info@zhinst.com.

If you followed the launch of the SHFQA Quantum Analyzer last November, you know that our next generation of qubit readout instruments offer operation at up to 8.5 GHz without mixer calibration and with excellent signal quality. What about qubit control? We have been working on that too, so stay tuned and register for our upcoming launch event to hear more about the next generation of qubit control instruments.

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