Circulator for use in superconducting quantum technology

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10665918-B2
Application number	US-201916540379-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2019
Priority date	Feb 15, 2018
Publication date	May 26, 2020
Grant date	May 26, 2020

Abstract

A superconducting circulator device and method of operation. The superconducting circulator device comprises more than two resonators of equal static resonance frequency chained to a ring system by strong coupling. Each of the resonators comprises an adjustable inductor built into the each one of the resonators. The device comprises also a set of ports, each one of the ports coupled to a corresponding one of the more than two resonators, a set of modulators, each one of the modulators positioned adjacently to a corresponding one of the adjustable inductor, and a set of modulation control ports. Each of the modulation control ports is connected to a corresponding modulator of the set of modulators such that each of the modulation control ports controls the related static resonance frequency of the related resonators and such that the ring system is modulatable.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A superconducting circulator device comprising
two or more resonators of equal static resonance frequency chained to a ring system by strong coupling, wherein each of said resonators comprises an adjustable inductor built into each one of said resonators at a position where a minimum of an electromagnetic field is positioned in operation of a resonator;
a set of ports, each one of said ports coupled to a corresponding one of said two or more resonators, and
a set of modulators, each one of said modulators positioned adjacent to corresponding one of said adjustable inductor,
a set of modulation control ports, each of said modulation control ports connected to a corresponding modulator of said set of modulators such that each of said modulation control ports controls said related static resonance frequency of said related resonators and such that said ring system is modulatable.

2. The superconducting circulator device according to claim 1 , wherein each one of said adjustable inductors comprises at least one Josephson junction.

3. The superconducting circulator device according to claim 1 , wherein said superconducting circulator device is spatio temporarily modulatable in a circular fashion with a static frequency equally-phase-shifted over said chained resonators.

4. The superconducting circulator device according to claim 1 , wherein each of said two or more resonators is of a strip shape, said adjustable inductor positioned within the strip shape of a resonator.

5. The superconducting circulator device according to claim 4 , wherein said adjustable inductor is positioned in a center of a respective strip shape resonator.

6. The superconducting circulator device according to claim 5 , wherein said adjustable inductor positioned within the strip shape of a resonator is at a position near a coupling point of a port to a resonator.

7. The superconducting circulator device according to claim 1 , wherein each one of said adjustable inductors is a set of adjacent adjustable inductors incorporated in a row into one of said resonators.

8. The superconducting circulator device according to claim 7 , wherein said adjacent adjustable inductors are excitable together by a corresponding modulator control port.

9. The superconducting circulator device according to claim 7 , wherein each said adjacent adjustable inductors has a corresponding modulator control port and a potential delay line between said adjacent adjustable inductors.

10. A method for operating a superconducting circulator device having more than two resonators of equal static resonance frequency chained to a ring system by strong coupling, wherein each of said resonators comprises an adjustable inductor built into each one of said resonators at a position where a minimum of an electromagnetic field is positioned in operation of a resonator, the method comprising:
coupling a set of ports to said more than two resonators, wherein each one of said ports is coupled to one of said more than two resonators, and
controlling a static resonance frequency of said ring system using a set of modulators, each one of said modulators connected to a corresponding modulation port, and each one of said modulators being positioned adjacently to one of said adjustable inductors, and
modulating said ring system by applying a modulation frequency to said set of modulation control ports.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein each one of said adjustable inductors comprises at least one Josephson junctions.

12. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
modulating said superconducting circulator device spatio temporarily in a circular fashion with a static frequency equally-phase-shifted over said chained resonators.

13. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
adjusting said static resonance frequency of each of the resonators by applying a constant current to a corresponding one of said modulation control ports.

14. The method according to claim 10 , wherein an input signal applied to one of said ports results in an output signal at said port of said resonator on left side or a right side of said resonator relating to said one of said ports, said input signal was supplied.

15. The method according to claim 10 , wherein each of said two or more resonators is of a strip shape, said adjustable inductor positioned within the strip shape of a resonator in a center of a respective resonator.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein said adjustable inductor is positioned in a center of a respective strip shape resonator.

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein said adjustable inductor positioned within the strip shape of a resonator is at a position near a coupling point of a port to a resonator.

18. The method according to claim 16 , wherein each one of said adjustable inductors is a set of adjacent adjustable inductors incorporated in a row into one of said resonators.

19. The method according to claim 18 , wherein said adjacent adjustable inductors are excitable together by a corresponding modulator control port.

20. The method according to claim 18 , further comprising:
modulating the set of adjacently positioned, adjustable inductors by one out of said set of modulator ports simultaneously, wherein each one of said set of adjustable inductors is positioned in a row along a shape of one of said ring of resonators.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Mueller Peter

Classifications

• H01P1/387

  Strip line circulators · CPC title

• H03H7/18

  Networks for phase shifting · CPC title

• H01P1/38 Primary

  Circulators · CPC title

• H01P7/086

  Coplanar waveguide resonators (H01P7/088 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06N10/00

  Quantum computing, i.e. information processing based on quantum-mechanical phenomena · CPC title