Mitigation of quantum crosstalk in cross-resonance based qubit architectures

Abstract

The Cross-resonance (CR) gate architecture that exploits fixed-frequency transmon qubits and fixed couplings is a leading candidate for quantum computing. Nonetheless, without the tunability of qubit parameters such as qubit frequencies and couplings, gate operations can be limited by the presence of quantum crosstalk arising from the always-on couplings. When increasing system sizes, this can become even more serious considering frequency collisions caused by fabrication uncertainties. Here, we introduce a CR gate-based transmon architecture with passive mitigation of both quantum crosstalk and frequency collisions. Assuming typical parameters, we show that ZZ crosstalk can be suppressed while maintaining XY couplings to support fast, high-fidelity CR gates. The architecture also allows one to go beyond the existing literature by extending the operating regions in which fast, high-fidelity CR gates are possible, thus alleviating the frequency-collision issue. To examine the practicality, we analyze the CR gate performance in multiqubit lattices and provide an intuitive model for identifying and mitigating the dominant source of error. For the state-of-the-art precision in setting frequencies, we further investigate its impact on the gates. We find that ZZ crosstalk and frequency collisions can be largely mitigated for neighboring qubits, while interactions beyond near neighbor qubits can introduce new frequency collisions. As the strength is typically at the sub-MHz level, adding weak off-resonant drives to selectively shift qubits can mitigate the collisions. This work could be useful for suppressing quantum crosstalk and improving gate fidelities in large-scale quantum processors based on fixed-frequency qubits and fixed couplings.