Fast Superconducting Qubit Control Using Subharmonic Drives

C2QA researchers demonstrated a new qubit control method that enables fast, high-fidelity operations while reducing heating

April 6, 2026

Subharmonic driving enables rapid qubit rotations while preserving coherence by separating control a enlarge

Subharmonic driving enables rapid qubit rotations while preserving coherence by separating control and decay frequencies.

Scientific Achievement

A C2QA-led team demonstrated a new single-qubit control method using subharmonic microwave drives, enabling fast, high-fidelity gates by driving a transmon qubit at one third of its resonant frequency while preserving coherence.

Significance and Impact

Fast, high-fidelity qubit control is essential for scalable quantum computing but is often limited by heating and decoherence. By decoupling qubit control from resonant decay, this work enables fast gates with reduced heating and offers promise for large-scale superconducting quantum processors.

Research Details

  • Demonstrated subharmonic, single-qubit gates as short as 37.4 ns with fidelities as high as 99.91%.
  • Showed that subharmonic control can reduce cryostat heating compared to conventional resonant driving.
  • Provided new insight into the limits of parametric driving for qubit control and two-qubit gates.

Collaborating Institutions

  • Yale University
  • Virginia Tech

Publication

Xia, M., Zhou, C., Liu, C., Patel, P., Cao, X., Lu, P., Mesits, B., Mucci, M., Gorski, D., Pekker, D., Hatridge, M.
Fast superconducting qubit control with subharmonic drives.
Nature Communications 17, 1024 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67766-6

Acknowledgements 

This research, including funding for M.X., C.Z., and C.L., was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA) under Contract No. DE-SC0012704. Support was also provided by the Air Force Office of Strategic Research under award FA9550-15-1-0015, and the National Science Foundation PIRE HYBRID program under contract 1743717.

Michael Hatridge has a consulting arrangement with QCI/Dwave and has a conflict-of-interest management plan in place with Yale University. Pinlei Lv has a financial stake in QCI/Dwave.

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