Physics

Dr. Archana Kamal
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

The promise of quantum computers to solve problems intractable with their best classical counterparts has catapulted quantum information processing into a major research effort in recent years. In addition, rapidly evolving capabilities in manipulating quantum systems have provided us with new insights into the dynamics of nature at small scales. One of the primary challenges in developing any practical quantum information platform, however, is to harness quantum effects on macroscopic scales. Superconducting circuits, employing Josephson junctions, have been particularly successful in accomplishing this. The dissipation-less Josephson nonlinearity has been exploited in applications ranging from coherent artificial atoms to high-fidelity quantum measurement. I will describe universal theoretical and experimental themes crucial for future quantum mechanical processors, and discuss the progress of superconducting circuit technology in realizing them.