Bojos per la Física is an outreach activity for last-year high school students. These activities are organized on Saturday morning and the students get to meet researchers in Physics and know about different research topics. In this ocasion, Luca Cozzolino and Alba Torras-Coloma prepared an activity about Quantum Computing. The students got an introduction to quanutm physics and quanutm computing, they visited the QCT laboratory and finally they were able to implement a quantum algorithm on a real quantum computer.
On Friday 12th of April David López-Núñez successfully defended his PhD thesis on “Coherent Flux Qubits for Quantum Annealing”. Congratulations Dr. López-Núñez!
Luca, Alba, David and Pol traveled to Minneapolis for this year’s edition of the March Meeting. Luca Cozzolino presented in the Quantum Annealing and Quantum Inspired Classical Algorithms his progress on the “Novel readout for Quantum Annealing”. Alba Torras-Coloma also presented her work on “Non-perturbative Ultrastrong Couplings in Superconducting Quanutm Circuits” featured in the Novel Superconducting Qubits session.
In this paper, the authors from the QCT group Alba Torras-Coloma, Elia Bertoldo, David López-Núñez and Pol Forn-Díaz present “NitrAl”, a new superconducting material. The work focusses on the study of the main superconducting properties of nitridized aluminum thin films.
Elia gave the presentation entitled “Superconducting Qubits: state of the art, current limitations and future challenges” at the pizza seminar organized by the UAB Physics students association. This association is a delegation of the RSEF students association, and organizes a monthly seminar showcasing a different research topic.
Luca presented at the INQA Conference 2023: New Platforms and Algorithms. The conference was held in Innsbruck, Austria between the 6th and 8th of November. Luca presented a poster with the latest results on Coherent Flux Qubits for Quantum Annealing.
Pol Forn-Diaz is author of a new publication focused on the opportunity to use acoustic wave filters as a Purcell filter. Using acoustic wave filters, like bulk acoustic wave (BAW) or surface acoustic wave (SAW), versus the current state-of-the-art Purcell filters would provide several advantages: higher isolation of the qubit to the readout frequencies as well as being quite miniaturized compared to usual filter alternatives. In this work a 1.5GHz LiNbO SAW resonator was characterized.
On the 26th of April Alba Torras was invited to present at the Quantum CARLA symposium. This yearly symposium is targeted at students in the initial steps of their careers. There were several stablished researchers and early career scientists showing their careers paths. Alba presented the trajectory of her first year as a research in Quantum Physics and how she decided to pursue a career to become an experimental quantum physicist.
The AVaQus Collaboration held their first in-person meeting on the 20th of April at the Centro de Ciencias Pedro Pascual in Benasque (Spain). Members of IFAE, CNRS, Delft Circuits, KIT, CSIC, HQS, and Qilimanjaro exchanged information on the status of the project and laid the path forward to pursue their respective goals.
IFAE members David López-Núñez, Fabian Zwiehoff, and Pol Forn-Díaz organized the first Spring School on Superconducting Qubits Technology held in Benasque (Spain). The school took place from the 11th to the 21st of April and saw the partecipation of more than 70 members from both research institutions and industry.
Quantum computers based on superconducting qubit technology are currently one of the leading platforms in the race towards quantum advantage. As a highly multidisciplinary field, it requires expertise in subjects like quantum optics, microwave engineering, circuit design, nanofabrication, measurement electronics and quantum metrology, as well as cryogenics.