Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H10—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • H10N—ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • H10N60/00—Superconducting devices
  • H10N60/10—Junction-based devices
  • H10N60/12—Josephson-effect devices
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B82—NANOTECHNOLOGY
  • B82Y—SPECIFIC USES OR APPLICATIONS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MEASUREMENT OR ANALYSIS OF NANOSTRUCTURES; MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF NANOSTRUCTURES
  • B82Y10/00—Nanotechnology for information processing, storage or transmission, e.g. quantum computing or single electron logic
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06N—COMPUTING ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS
  • G06N10/00—Quantum computing, i.e. information processing based on quantum-mechanical phenomena
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC
  • Y10S—TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y10S977/00—Nanotechnology
  • Y10S977/902—Specified use of nanostructure
  • Y10S977/932—Specified use of nanostructure for electronic or optoelectronic application
  • Y10S977/933—Spintronics or quantum computing

Definitions

• This invention relates to quantum computing and to solid state devices that use superconducting materials to create and maintain coherent quantum states such as are required for quantum computing.
• Quantum computing generally involves initializing the states of N qubits
• N qubits define an initial state that is a combination of 2 N degenerate states.
• the entanglements control the evolution of the distinguishable quantum states and define calculations that the evolution of the quantum states performs. This evolution, in effect, performs 2 N simultaneous calculations. Reading the qubits after evolution is complete determines the states of the qubits and the results of the calculations.
• Another physical system for implementing a qubit includes a superconducting reservoir, a superconducting island, and a Josephson junction that can transmit a Cooper pair (of electrons) from the reservoir into the island.
• the island has two degenerate states. One state is electrically neutral, but the other state has an extra Cooper pair on the island.
• a problem with this system is that the charge of the island in the state having the extra Cooper pair causes long range electric interactions that interfere with the coherence of the state of the qubit. The electric interactions can force the island into a state that definitely has or lacks an extra Cooper pair. Accordingly, the electric interactions can end the evolution of the state before calculations are complete or qubits are read.
• a Josephson junction refers to two superconducting electrodes separated by a thin tunnel barrier formed by a dielectric.
• Figure la shows a SQUID (superconduction quantum interference device) qubit 100.
• Qubit 100 has a continous superconducting loop 101 with endpoints separated by a gap to form junction 110.
• Junction 110 is filled with a thin dielectric forming a potential barrier between the endpoints of line 101.
• MQC macroscopic quantum coherence
• qubit 100 is an open system and transition from one potential well to another is accompanied by the inversion of the magnetic field and superconducting screening currents surrounding qubit 100.
• the energy of this redistribution and the unknown external influences can be relatively large and can therefore cause decoherence (i.e., collapsing of the quantum mechanical wave functions).
• the potential energy barrier, and therefore the energy split between the two degenerated states cannot be controlled in situ, unless the Josephson junction is substituted by a small SQUTD with independently-tunable critical current.
• a qubit having a shaped long Josephson junction which can trap fluxon is presented.
• a qubit according to the present invention can offer a well-isolated system that allows independent control over the potential energy profile of a magnetic fluxon trapped on the qubit and dissipation of fluxons.
• shaped long Josephson junctions can have shapes resulting in nearly any arbitrary desired potential energy function for a magnetic fluxon trapped on the junction.
• a superconducting qubit according to the present invention includes a long Josephson junction having a shape such as to produce a selected potential energy function indicating a plurality of pinning locations for a trapped fluxon in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field.
• the qubit has a heart-shaped long Josephson junction.
• the heart-shaped junction in an external magnetic field applied in the plane of the Josephson junction and along a direction that the two lobes of the heart-shape are symmetric about (i.e., the symmetry axis of the heart), provides a spatially symmetric double-well potential energy function for pinning a trapped fluxon in one of the two lobes of the heart shape.
• the height of the potential barrier between the wells is controlled by the magnitude of the applied magnetic field.
• a non-symmetric double- welled potential energy function can be created by distorting the symmetry of the two lobes physically (i.e., distorting the "heart-shape" of the shaped Josephson junction).
• the double-welled potential energy function can be altered in a controlled way by rotating the externally applied magnetic field in the plane of the Josephson junction and by applying a bias current.
• a fluxon trapped on a heart-shaped junction will have a magnetic-field dependent potential energy function with minima on each of the two lobes, where the magnetic moment of the fluxon is aligned with the direction of the applied magnetic field in the plane of the junction. Pinning locations for fluxons are therefore created on each of the lobes of the heart-shaped junction. Fluxons can be trapped on the junction by applying a small bias current through the junction while the temperature of the superconductors forming the junction is lowered through the superconducting transition temperature.
• the potential energy function can then be controlled by rotating the magnetic field in the plane of the junction and by adjusting a small bias current through the junction. Additionally, the height of the potential well barrier between the two minima in the potential energy function is determined by the strength of the externally applied magnetic field.
• a qubit having a spatially periodic potential well function is formed by a long Josephson junction shaped like a sine wave.
• a periodic potential well function is formed.
• the magnetic portion of the potential energy function is a minimum when the magnetic moment of the trapped fluxon traveling on the junction is aligned with the externally applied magnetic field in the plane of the junction and is a maximum when the magnetic moment has its maximum angle with the externally applied magnetic field. Pinning locations, therefore, are formed wherever the potential energy function is minimum.
• variations of the potential energy function of a fluxon on the qubit can be altered by the bias current and the strength and direction of the externally applied magnetic field.
• a qubit includes an S-shaped or M-shaped long
• the potential energy function of a trapped fluxon in the junction is a minimum were the angle between the magnetic moment of the fluxon and an externally applied magnetic field is a minimum.
• the final state of a qubit according to the present invention can be determined by placing small, weakly coupled SQUID detectors in proximity to the pinning locations on the qubit.
• the final state of a qubit according to the present invention can be determined by measuring the escape current that, in general, is different for different pinning locations on the shaped long Josephson junction.
• Entaglements can be formed between qubits made from long Josephson junctions by placing the Josephsonjunctions proximate one another so that a magnetic interaction between the magnetic moments of the fluxons can be established .
• a qubit with a periodic potential well can generate Bloch zones of a fluxon moving as a quantum particle in the periodic potential.
• An array of qubits can be initialized by controlling the bias current through the junction and the magnetic field applied to the junction.
• the quantum state ofthe qubits will then evolve in a fashion predicted by the appropriate Hamiltonian, performing the requested quantum computation in the process.
• the result ofthe quantum computation can then be read-out by determining the location ofthe fluxon in each qubit ofthe array.
• Figures la and lb show a SQUTD type qubit and a potential energy profile for a magnetic flux on the SQUTD type qubit, respectively.
• Figure 2a shows an annular long Josephson junction with a trapped fluxon.
• Figures 2b, 2c, and 2d show a general shaped long Josephson junction with a fluxon, a plan view of the junction, and a cross-sectional view of the junction, respectively.
• Figure 2e shows a plan view of an annular long Josephson junction with a trapped fluxon.
• Figure 2f shows a wash-board potential energy function ofthe fluxon in an annular long Josephson junction.
• Figure 3 a shows a standard geometry for implementing an annular long Josephson j unction.
• Figure 3b shows a typical I-V curve for a fluxon in an annular long Josephson junction.
• Figure 3 c shows a typical thermal activation curve for a fluxon in an annular long Josephson junction.
• Figure 4a shows a qubit according to an embodiment ofthe present invention, the qubit being a heart-shaped long Josephson junction.
• Figure 4b shows a plan view ofthe heart-shaped long Josephson junction shown in Figure 4a.
• Figure 4c shows a potential energy function of a fluxon in a heart-shaped long Josephson junction shown in Figure 4a.
• Figure 4d shows an I-V curve for a fluxon in a heart-shaped long Josephson junction.
• Figure 4e shows an asymmetric dependence ofthe critical current on applied magnetic field in a heart-shaped long Josephson junction.
• Figure 4f shows a thermal activation curve for a heart-shaped Josephson junction.
• Figure 5a shows a plan view of a qubit according to another embodiment ofthe present invention, which is a sine-shaped long Josephson junction.
• Figure 5b shows a potential energy function of a fluxon on a sine-shaped long Josephson junction according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.
• Figure 5c shows a qubit according to the present invention having an S-shaped long Josephson junction.
• Figure 5d shows a qubit according to the present invention having an M-shaped long Josephson junction.
• Figures 6a and 6b show embodiments of qubits in the form of heart-shaped long
• Figure 7a shows an array of qubits formed from shaped long Josephson junctions according to the present invention arranged in a plane.
• Figure 7b shows a cross-section of an array of qubits including a stacked shaped long Josephson junction
• Figure 2a shows a structure 200 having a long annular Josephson junction 210.
• Josephson junction 210 is formed by an annular superconductor 211 separated from another annular superconductor 212 by a dielectric. A fluxon 215 having magnetic moment ⁇ is shown trapped in the junction 210.
• Figure 2b shows a general structure 250 having a long Josephson junction 251 separating superconductors 252 and 253. A fluxon 254 is shown trapped on structure 250.
• Structure 200 is a special case of structure 250.
• Figure 2c shows a cross-sectional view of structure 250.
• Figure 2d shows a planar view of structure 250. The superconducting phase difference ⁇ across long Josephson junction 251 is described by the perturbed sine-Gordon equation
• x and t are normalized time and space coordinates.
• the space coordinate x describing the location on junction 251, is normalized to the Josephson penetration depth ⁇ j and the time t is normalized to the inverse plasma frequency (Op 1 .
• the parameter ⁇ is the dissipation coefficient due to the quasiparticle tunneling across the tunnel barrier at the junction
• ⁇ is the bias current density normalized to the critical current density J c of the junction Iu a JI c
• ⁇ is the surface loss coefficient
• a ⁇ f(x,t) is a function of x and t which is related to the contribution ofthe potential energy function of fluxon 254 from influences external to structure 250 (e.g., an externally applied magnetic field H ).
• the notation ⁇ z is a short hand notation for the partial derivative
• ⁇ B , ⁇ , , ⁇ ft , and dz ⁇ are the respective partial derivatives of ⁇ with respect to the indicated subscripts.
• the dissipation parameters ⁇ and ⁇ can be made very small at low temperature by using a high-quality tunnel barrier for function 251.
• the parameters ⁇ and ⁇ are dependent on the material properties of junction 251 and can be made vanishingly small by controlling the processing that results in structure 250.
• ⁇ is about 10 '2 at a temperature of about 4.2 K and decreases exponentially with temperature.
• the parameter ⁇ can be made vanishingly small by controlling the bias current 7 ias through junction 251.
• Junction 251 can be viewed as a quasi-one-dimensional system if the width, W, of junction 251 is smaller than the Josephson penetration depth ⁇ j.
• the width of the junction W is about 0.3 ⁇ m while the Josephson penetration depth ⁇ j is about 30 ⁇ m. Since the magnetic flux in a superconductor is quantized, fluxon 254, a particle-like object having one quantum of magnetic flux, is a topologically stable particle-like object governed by the equation of motion
• FIG. 3 a shows an embodiment of structure 200 having a first conductor 301 coupled to conductor 211 and a second conductor 302 coupled to conductor 210.
• conductor 211 is formed in conductor 301 and conductor 210 is formed in conductor 302.
• Fluxon 215 is trapped in junction 210.
• a bias current I i as passes from conductor 301 through junction 210 and through conductor 302.
• a magnetic field H is applied in the plane of junction 210.
• Kato and Imada (See T. Kato and M. Imada, J. Phys. Soc. Japan 65, 2964 (1996)) theoretically studied MQT of a fluxon pinned in a potential well. Their calculations show that for a junction width of 1 ⁇ m the temperature ofthe crossover from the thermally activated regime to the quantum tunneling regime is about 50 mK. Kato and Imada also took into account dissipation effects due to quasiparticle tunneling using the Caldeira-Leggett approach. The dissipation yields a correction that reduces the tunneling rate slightly, i.e., by about 20%.
• Fluxons moving in a magnetic field-induced potential in annular long Josephson junctions have been studied in, for example, A. V. Ustinov, B. A. Malomed, N.
• Thyssen "Soliton Trapping in a Periodic Potential: Experiment,” Phys. Lett. A 233, 239 (1997), herein incorporated by reference in its entirety; A. V. Ustinov, "Observation of a Radiation-Induced Soliton Resonance in a Josephson Ring/' JETP Lett., Vol. 64, No. 3, 191 (1996), herein incorporated by reference in its entirety; and A. Ustinov, B. Malomed, E. Goldobin, "Backbending Current- Voltage Characteristic for an Annular Josephson Junction in a Magnetic Field,” Phys. Rev. B, Vol. 60, No. 2, 1365 (1999), herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
• Figures 2b, 2c, and 2d show a general structure 250 having a Josephson junction 251 between superconductors 252 and 253. Fluxon 254, having magnetic moment n , is shown trapped on junction 251. Structure 250 is placed in external magnetic field H . The magnetic field H interacts with fluxon 254 as with a magnetic dipole having magnetic moment ⁇ . The interaction energy, then, is given by t/ ⁇ nt oc -(H . ,T) .
• moment ⁇ is directed perpendicular to the junction line (i.e., the path of conductors 252 and 253) and lies in the plane of the junction.
• the external magnetic field H is applied in the plane of junction 251.
• Figure 2e shows a planar view ofthe long annular Josephson junction shown in Figure 2a.
• Equation 4 (7 mt °c -Hn cos ⁇ and therefore is at a minimum where ⁇ is directed along H and at a maximum where ⁇ is opposite to H .
• Equation 4 7 mt °c -Hn cos ⁇ and therefore is at a minimum where ⁇ is directed along H and at a maximum where ⁇ is opposite to H .
• Equation 5 Equation 5 (5)
• D is the diameter of annular long Josephson junction 210, and neglecting the surface loss term ⁇ .
• Equation 5 accounts for the coupling between the externally applied field and the flux density of fluxon 254 in junction 210.
• FIG. 3b shows an I- V curve characteristic of a fluxon trapped on an annular Josephson junction structure 200.
• a fluxon trapped in a potential well can also escape by thermal activation or by quantum tunneling. The thermal activation rate is given by
• a cross-over from thermal activation dominating the escape of fluxons from the quantum well to quantum tunneling dominating the escape of fluxons can be expected at temperatures T about 20 mK for annular long Josephsonjunctions with several microns of width. This cross-over temperature can be increased close to about 100 mK with sub-micron junctions widths.
• annular long Josephson junction 200 discussed above has a single pinning location corresponding to the minima in the potential energy function where the magnetic moment of fluxon 215 is aligned in the plane of junction 211 with externally applied magnetic field H .
• the structure In order to form a standard quantum computing qubit, the structure should exhibit at least two pinning locations on the qubit structure. In other words, in order to form a quantum computing qubit a fluxon on the qubit must have at least a double- welled potential energy function.
• a qubit according to the present invention is formed from a shaped long Josephson junction.
• Pinning forces, resulting in pinning locations may have various physical sources.
• Pinning locations in long Josephsonjunctions can be formed by introducing micro-shorts or micro-resistors within the junction. Pinning locations may also be created by interactions between the fluxon and the junction leads or by interactions between the fluxons and parasitic magnetic flux trapped in the superconducting films. However, pinning locations created by interactions between the fluxons and external magnetic fields are controllable.
• the shape of the junction specifically determines the interaction energy U(q). Therefore, by varying the junction geometry it is possible to design structures, at least in principle, with an arbitrarily shaped fluxon potential U(q).
• a qubit utilizing macroscopic quantum coherence (MQC) should have at least a double welled potential. Discussions of shaped Josephsonjunctions are presented in A. Wallraff, Y. Koval, M. Levitchev, M. Fistul, A. V. Ustinov, "Fluxons in sub-Micron Wide Long Josephson Juctions"Conference on "Electron Transport in Mesoscopic Systems," Gothenburg, Sweden, Aug. 12-15, 1999.
• Figure 4a shows an embodiment of a qubit 400 according to the present invention having a long "heart" shaped Josephson junction 401.
• Qubit 400 includes superconductors 402 and 403 separated to form junction 401.
• the lobes at locations 406 and 407 can be oriented in any direction. If they are not oriented symmetrically with respect to the direction of bias current / b i as , then ⁇ may be dependent on the coordinate in the junction 401.
• the magnetic portion ofthe energy potential is at a minimum when the magnetic moment it of a fluxon trapped on junction 401 aligns with the externally applied magnetic field H .
• a magnetic field H applied in the plane of junction 401 can produce magnetic energy potential minima at pinning points 406 and 407.
• a third minimum at position 409 is avoided by making the edge between lobes sharp enough, i.e. with a radius much smaller than ⁇ j.
• the magnetic field and the shape of qubit 400 are arranged so that the potential energy at position 406 is the same as the potential energy at position 407.
• a symmetric potential energy function is shown in Figure 4C.
• the shape of qubit 400 can be altered so that the minima of one ofthe two potential wells formed can be lower than the other minima.
• Equation 6 when a bias current I b i as is applied through junction 401, a "tilting" ofthe potential is observed (i.e., another washboard potential with minima positioned at pinning points 406 and 407 is produced).
• the symmetric potential energy curve shown in Figure 4C is the magnetic potential energy absent the effects of a bias current.
• the potential energy function shown in Figure 4C is a double-welled potential.
• the fluxon can be localized (as a classical particle) in a "0" state corresponding to position 406 or a "1" state corresponding to position 407. At these two locations, the fluxon potential energy is at a minimum.
• the maximum of potential energy, where the magnetic moment n ofthe fluxon is opposite the magnetic field, is found at position 408. Since n , at any point on the shape of qubit 400, is perpendicular to the shape of qubit 400, for any orientation of magnetic field H with respect to qubit 400, the resulting potential energy is proportional to the cosine ofthe angle between n and H , as seen from Equation 4.
• the fluxon potential is symmetric. If structure 400 is decoupled from the environment, and thermal activation (i.e. T) is low and dissipation (i.e. ⁇ and ⁇ ) is low enough, the superposition ofthe macroscopically distinct symmetric quantum states labeled
• the height ofthe potential barrier between the two minima is controlled by the strength ofthe externally applied magnetic field. Additionally, the symmetry ofthe potential energy curve can be modified by applying a bias current I b i as or by varying the direction ofthe externally applied magnetic field H .
• Figure 4D shows an I-Vcwve for an example of qubit 400 having a width of 0.3 ⁇ m and radius of about 50 ⁇ m at a temperature of 4.2K.
• Figure 4E shows a relationship between the critical current I c , the current where fluxon 405 begins to travel, and the applied magnetic field strength. The assymetry in the critical current L with applied magnetic field strength is shape induced and can be utilized for reading out the final state of qubit 400.
• Figure 4F shows thermal activation rate and probability functions for a heart-shaped long Josephson junction having a 0.3 ⁇ m width and radius of about 50 ⁇ m at 7 4.2K.
• a qubit according to the present invention is initialized by trapping a fluxon in the junction and adjusting the direction of the externally applied magnetic field so that the fluxon is pinned on a selected pinning location in the qubit.
• the potential barrier between the states is then reduced by reducing the strength ofthe magnetic field, allowing the quantum states ofthe fluxon to evolve with time.
• the final state is frozen by increasing the strength ofthe magnetic field.
• the final state ofthe fluxon can then be read out by, for example, detecting the fluxon position with SQUTD detectors or by measuring the fluxon escape current.
• the magnetic moment ofthe trapped fluxon can be directed either out of or into the interior of the heart-shaped junction 401.
• the fluxon can be controlled by the bias current that is applied while crossing over the superconducting transition temperature. In these two cases the operation ofthe resulting qubit 400 is the same. However, the direction ofthe magnetic field H that controls the energy barrier between the two states is selected appropriately to create the desired double- well potential energy function for the trapped fluxon.
• the magnetic field H that controls the fluxon potential energy function has to be small enough such that it does not generate extra fluxons (and/or antifluxons) that might penetrate junction 401.
• the field which induces fluxons penetrating into the junction is known to be the Josephson vortex critical field H cl , which is typically ofthe order of 1 Oe.
• the magnetic field that is required to create the desired double-well potential energy function for a trapped fluxon is typically one order of magnitude less than of H cl .
• the heart-shaped long Josephson junction shown in Figures 4A and 4B discussed above is only an example ofthe variously shaped junctions leading to various potential energy functions. In principle, virtually any desired potential energy function can be constructed by varying the shape ofthe long Josephson junction. Potential energy functions of interest to quantum computing are those that result in two or more pinning locations on the qubit.
• FIG. 5 A shows another embodiment of a qubit 500 according to the present invention.
• Qubit 500 creates a spatially periodic potential energy function.
• Qubit 500 is arranged so that at positions qi through q 8 the magnetic moment of a fluxon, ⁇ , is aligned with the externally applied magnetic field H .
• the potential energy ofthe fluxon is a minimum where its magnetic moment n is parallel with the magnetic field H .
• the potential energy ofthe fluxon is a maximum where the angle between the magnetic moment it and the magnetic field H is a maximum.
• Figure 5B shows the periodic potential energy function experienced by a fluxon on qubit 500.
• Further embodiments of qubits according to the present invention include an S- shaped long Josephson junction or an M-shaped Josephsonjunctions.
• Figure 5c shows a plan view of an S-shaped junction 510 and Figure 5d shows an M-shaped junction 520.
• S-shaped junction 510 the external magnetic field has to be oriented in the "horizontal" direction, creating pinning points 511 and 512.
• M-shaped junction 520 the control field has to be turned in the "vertical" direction, creating pinning points 521 and 523.
• a pinning location at point 522 can be avoided by making a sharp joint in the center of M-shaped junction 520.
• the advantage ofthe S- and M-shaped junctions is that they have open boundaries for the fluxon entrance and do not require fluxon trapping at the superconductor transition temperature. The disadvantage in both cases is possible escape ofthe fluxon through the junction boundaries and, because of that, a narrower magnetic field and bias current range of the operation may be utilized in these qubits.
• a possible constraint on the potentials that can be generated by changing the junction shape is that the shape dependent portion ofthe potential is effectively averaged over the size ofthe fluxon, which is proportional to the Josephson penetration ⁇ j. Therefore, as the Josephson penetration gets large, the features ofthe potential energy function that depend on the shape of the junction may disappear.
• Figure 6a shows an embodiment of a qubit 600 having a heart shaped long Josephson junction structure.
• Qubit 600 has a junction 601 formed between superconductors 603 and 602.
• structure 600 is formed with an Nb/Al-AlO 2 /Nb junction (i.e., superconductors 603 and 602 are Nb).
• superconductors 603 and 602 are separated in junction 601 by an Al-AlO 2 layer.
• the width ofthe Josephson junction in structure 600 is about 0.3 ⁇ m, although other embodiments may have any width. The smaller the width of the junction, the higher is the cross-over temperature to the quantum regime.
• Junction 601 is shown having a radius of about 50 ⁇ m, although other embodiments may have radial dimensions in the range from a few to several hundred micrometers, depending on the Josephson penetration depth ⁇ j.
• the diameter ofthe structure has to be ofthe order of a few ⁇ j .
• the critical current density J c of junction 601 is about 100 A/cm 2 and consequently the Josephson length ⁇ j is about 30 ⁇ m.
• a qubit structure according to the present invention can be constructed from any combination of materials that forms a Josephson tunnel junction. Additionally, provided that magnetic fluxon can be trapped in the junction formed and the temperature can be low enough, the junction can have any width.
• Figure 6b shows a similar qubit 610 with a less pronounced heart shape. Qubit 610, therefore, would exhibit a less defined pinning location, i.e. the minima ofthe potential barrier at the pinning sites is broader and the height ofthe potential barrier between the two minima will be lower for qubit structure 610 than for qubit structure 600.
• FIG. 7a shows an embodiment of an array of qubits 800 according to the present invention.
• array 800 includes heart-shaped qubits 801-1 through 801- N, qubits 801-1 through 801-N may be of any other shape as well.
• Each of qubits 801- 1 through 801-N is shaped to create a potential energy function having pinning locations 805-1 and 806-1 through 805-N and 806-N, respectively.
• the potential energy functions of each of qubits 801 through 801-N need not be identical.
• junctions 801-1 through 801-N may not all be oriented symmetrically with respect to any externally applied magnetic field.
• fluxons 804-1 through 804-N can be trapped on qubits 801-1 through 801-N, respectively, by application of a bias current through the Josephson junction of qubits 801-1 through 801-N while the temperature is lowered through the superconducting transition temperature.
• the initial states of fluxons 804-1 through 804-N i.e., which pinning location 805 or 806 each of fluxons 804 occupies) by rotating the externally applied magnetic field H or by adjusting the bias current through the junctions.
• Qubits 801-1 through 801-N may be manufactured in close proximity to one another so that pre-determined entanglements between adjoining ones of qubits 801-1 through 801-N are created through magnetic interaction between the trapped fluxons.
• the entangled qubits can be either placed nearby in the same plane suited with a superconducting groundplane(s) in order to increase the magnetic coupling between the devices, or stacked one on top of another as a Josephson junction stack. The latter case offers the largest possible magnetic coupling between the devices, that increases with decreasing ofthe thickness ofthe intermediate superconducting electrode.
• Figure 7b shows an example of a long Josephson junction stack having long junctions 811-1 through 811-N and superconducting layers 810-1 through 810-(N+1).
• junctions 811-1 through 811-N is a shaped Josephson junction and forms a qubit according to the present invention.
• Qubit array 800 of Figure 7a may be formed by qubits that are stacked as well as planar in order to form the desired entanglements.
• the final states of each of qubits 801-1 through 801-N can be read out, for example, by detectors 801-1 through 802-N and 803-1 through 803-N.
• detectors 801-1 through 802-N and 803-1 through 803-N are weakly- coupled SQUTD detectors that determine the location of fluxons 804-1 through 804-N by interaction with the magnetic moments of fluxons 804-1 through 804-N.
• the resulting state is to be frozen by increasing the externally applied magnetic field.
• the readout ofthe resulting state is made by measuring a difference between the magnetic fluxes detected by 801-1 and 802-N, 803-1 and 803-N, etc.

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