Structural Instability of Driven Josephson Circuits Prevented by an Inductive Shunt

Lucas Verney; Raphaël Lescanne; Michel H. Devoret; Zaki Leghtas; Mazyar Mirrahimi

doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.024003

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Structural Instability of Driven Josephson Circuits Prevented by an Inductive Shunt

Lucas Verney, Raphaël Lescanne, Michel H. Devoret, Zaki Leghtas, Mazyar Mirrahimi

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.11.024003 · Physical Review Applied

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Abstract

Superconducting circuits are a versatile platform to implement a multitude of Hamiltonians that perform quantum computation, simulation, and sensing tasks. A key ingredient for realizing a desired Hamiltonian is the irradiation of the circuit by a strong drive. These strong drives provide an in situ control of couplings, which cannot be obtained by near-equilibrium Hamiltonians. However, as shown in this paper, out-of-equilibrium systems are easily plagued by complex dynamics, leading to instabilities. The prediction and prevention of these instabilities is crucial, both from a fundamental and application perspective. We propose an inductively shunted transmon as the elementary circuit optimized for strong parametric drives. Developing a numerical approach that avoids the built-in limitations of perturbative analysis, we demonstrate that adding the inductive shunt significantly extends the range of pump powers over which the circuit behaves in a stable manner.