Coupling superconducting qubits to traveling surface acoustic wave phonons*

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are heavily used in classical signal processing applications. SAWs have also been proposed as a method to coherently couple disparate solid-state quantum systems, such as superconducting and semiconducting qubits^[1-4]. Recently the quantum control of phonons in a SAW resonator has also been demonstrated^[5]. In this talk, we report the experimental development of a device coupling two superconducting qubits through SAW phonons. The transduction of the energy quantum is performed by a unidirectional SAW transducer. We examine the influence of the material properties, coupling strategy, acoustic velocity and design on the performance of the state transfer.

^[1] M. V. Gustafsson, et al, Science, 346, 207-211, 2014
^[2] R. Manenti, et al, Phys. Rev. B, 93, 041411, 2016
^[3] B. A. Moores, Phys. Rev. Lett., 120, 227701, 2018
^[4] A. N. Bolgar, et al, Phys. Rev. Lett., 120, 223603, 2018
^[5] K. J. Satzinger, et al, arXiv:1804.07308, 2018