Measurement-induced qubit state mixing in circuit QED from up-converted dephasing noise

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Oct 12;109(15):153601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.153601. Epub 2012 Oct 9.

Abstract

We observe measurement-induced qubit state mixing in a transmon qubit dispersively coupled to a planar readout cavity. Our results indicate that dephasing noise at the qubit-readout detuning frequency is up-converted by readout photons to cause spurious qubit state transitions, thus limiting the nondemolition character of the readout. Furthermore, we use the qubit transition rate as a tool to extract an equivalent flux noise spectral density at f~1 GHz and find agreement with values extrapolated from a 1/f(α) fit to the measured flux noise spectral density below 1 Hz.