Ciro Santilli @cirosantilli 37

 Incoming links: Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation

DC SQUID Updated 2025-07-16

In Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation:

  |
+-+-+
|   |
X   X
|   |
+-+-+
  |

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rpi-pico-w/upython/adc.py Created 2025-07-27 Updated 2025-08-08

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../../rpi-pico-w/upython/adc.py: analog-to-digital converter.

The program continuously prints to the USB the value of the ADC on GPIO 26 once every 0.2 seconds.

The onboard LED is blinked as a heartbeat.

The hello world is with a potentiometer: extremes on GND and VCC pins of the Pi, and middle output on pin GIO26, then as you turn the knob, the uart value goes from about 0 to about 64k.

The 0 side is quite noisy and varies between 0 and 300 for some reason.

In Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation:

RPI_PICO_W__gnd__gpio26Adc__3.3V@36
            |    |          |
            |    |          |
            |  +-+          |
            |  |            |
            |  |  +---------+ 
            |  |  |
         P__1__2__3

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rpi-pico-w/upython/thermistor_fan_control.py 2025-08-08

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This example attempts to keep temperature to a fixed point by turning on a fan when a thermistor gets too hot.

You can test it easily if you are not in a place that is too hot by holding the thermistor with your finger to turn on the fan.

You can use a simple LED to represent the fan if you don't have one handy.

In Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation:

            +----------FAN-----------+
            |                        |
            |                        |
RPI_PICO_W__gnd__gpio26Adc__3.3V@36__gpio2
            |    |          |
            |    |          |
            |    |          |
            |    +-THERMISTOR
            |    |
            |    |
            R_10-+

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Flux qubit Updated 2025-07-16

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In Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation, it is a loop with three Josephson junctions:

+----X-----+
|          |
|          |
|          |
+--X----X--+

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/04/Flux_Qubit_-_Holloway.jpg

Video 1.

Superconducting Qubit by NTT SCL (2015)

Source.

Offers an interesting interpretation of superposition in that type of device (TODO precise name, seems to be a flux qubit): current going clockwise or current going counter clockwise at the same time. youtu.be/xjlGL4Mvq7A?t=1348 clarifies that this is just one of the types of qubits, and that it was developed by Hans Mooij et. al., with a proposal in 1999 and experiments in 2000. The other type is dual to this one, and the superposition of the other type is between N and N + 1 copper pairs stored in a box.

Their circuit is a loop with three Josephson junctions, in Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation:

+----X-----+
|          |
|          |
|          |
+--X----X--+

They name the clockwise and counter clockwise states

∣ L ⟩

and

∣ R ⟩

(named for Left and Right).

When half the magnetic flux quantum is applied as microwaves, this produces the ground state:

∣ 0 ⟩ = ∣ L ⟩ + ∣ R ⟩

(1)

where

L

and

R

cancel each other out. And the first excited state

∣ 1 ⟩

is:

∣ 0 ⟩ = ∣ L ⟩ - ∣ R ⟩

(2)

Then he mentions that:

to go from 0 to 1, they apply the difference in energy
if the duration is reduced by half, it creates a superposition of $∣ 0 ⟩ + ∣ 1 ⟩$ .

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Microphone Updated 2025-07-16

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Video 1.

Testing and Circuit for a Condenser microphone by RSD Academy (2018)

Source.

Not very numerical, but shows a simple working breadboard circuit and an oscilloscope. He whistles with his mouth to get a pretty pure frequency.

That type of microphone requires a bias voltage. The circuit is in Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation:

DC_9---R_10k--+--MICROPHONE--+--G
              |              |
              +-------V------+

Video 2.

Soundwaves on an oscilloscope by Animated Science (2015)

Source. Dude speaking to microphone. Some analysis of how different sounds look like. No circuit diagram.

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Probable observation of the Josephson superconducting tunneling effect Updated 2025-07-16

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Paper by Philip W. Anderson and John M. Rowell that first (?) experimentally observed the Josephson effect.

Paywalled by the American Physical Society as of 2023 at: journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.10.230

DOI: doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.10.230

TODO understand the graphs in detail.

They used tin-oxide-lead tunnel at 1.5 K. TODO oxide of what? Why two different metals? They say that both films are 200 nm thick, so maybe it is:

   -----+------+------+-----
...  Sn | SnO2 | PbO2 | Pb  ...
   -----+------+------------
          100nm 100nm

A reconstruction of their circuit in Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation TODO:

DC---R_10---X---G

There are not details of the physical construction of course. Reproducibility lol.

Figure 1.
Figure 1 of Probable observation of the Josephson superconducting tunneling effect
. TODO what do the dotted lines mean?

Figure 2.
Figure 2 of Probable observation of the Josephson superconducting tunneling effect
.

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Superconducting quantum computing Updated 2025-07-16

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Based on the Josephson effect. Yet another application of that phenomenal phenomena!

Philosophically, superconducting qubits are good because superconductivity is macroscopic.

It is fun to see that the representation of information in the QC basically uses an LC circuit, which is a very classical resonator circuit.

As mentioned at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_quantum_computing#Qubit_archetypes there are actually a few different types of superconducting qubits:

flux
charge
phase

and hybridizations of those such as:

transmon

Input:

microwave radiation to excite circuit, or do nothing and wait for it to fall to 0 spontaneously
interaction: TODO
readout: TODO

Video 1.

Quantum Computing with Superconducting Qubits by Alexandre Blais (2012)

Source.

Video 2.

Quantum Transport, Lecture 16: Superconducting qubits by Sergey Frolov (2013)

Source. youtu.be/Kz6mhh1A_mU?t=1171 describes several possible realizations: charge, flux, charge/flux and phase.

Video 3.

Building a quantum computer with superconducting qubits by Daniel Sank (2019)

Source. Daniel wears a "Google SB" t-shirt, which either means shabi in Chinese, or Santa Barbara. Google Quantum AI is based in Santa Barbara, with links to UCSB.

youtu.be/uPw9nkJAwDY?t=293 superconducting qubits are good because superconductivity is macroscopic. Explains how in non superconducting metal, each electron moves separatelly, and can hit atoms and leak vibration/photos, which lead to observation and quantum error
youtu.be/uPw9nkJAwDY?t=429 made of aluminium
youtu.be/uPw9nkJAwDY?t=432 shows the circuit diagram, and notes that the thing is basically a LC circuit
```
+-----+
|     |
|   +-+-+
|   |   |
C   X   X
|   |   |
|   +-+-+
|     |
+-----+
```
using the newly created just now Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation. Note that the block on the right is a SQUID device.
youtu.be/uPw9nkJAwDY?t=471 mentions that the frequency between states 0 and 1 is chosen to be 6 GHz:
- higher frequencies would be harder/more expensive to generate
- lower frequencies would mean less energy according to the Planck relation. And less energy means that thermal energy would matter more, and introduce more noise.
  6 GHz is about $6^{9} \times h = 6 \times 1 0^{9} \times 6.62 \times 1 0^{- 34} \approx 4 \times 1 0^{- 24} J$
  From the definition of the Boltzmann constant, the temperature which has that average energe of particles is of the order of:
  $T = E / k_{b} = 4 \times 1 0^{- 24} /1.38 \times 1 0^{- 23} \approx 0.3 K$
  (1)
This explains why we need to go to much lower temperatures than simply the superconducting temperature of aluminum!

Video 4.

A Brief History of Superconducting quantum computing by Steven Girvin (2021)

Source.

youtu.be/xjlGL4Mvq7A?t=138 superconducting quantum computer need non-linear components (too brief if you don't know what he means in advance)
youtu.be/xjlGL4Mvq7A?t=169 quantum computing is hard because we want long coherence but fast control

Video 5.

Superconducting Qubits I Part 1 by Zlatko Minev (2020)

Source.

The Q&A in the middle of talking is a bit annoying.

youtu.be/eZJjQGu85Ps?t=2443 the first actually useful part, shows a transmon diagram with some useful formulas on it

Video 6.

Superconducting Qubits I Part 2 by Zlatko Minev (2020)

Source.

Video 7.

How to Turn Superconductors Into A Quantum Computer by Lukas's Lab (2023)

Source. This video is just the introduction, too basic. But if he goes through with the followups he promisses, then something might actually come out of it.

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Transmon Updated 2025-07-16

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Used e.g. in the Sycamore processor.

The most basic type of transmon is in Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation, an LC circuit e.g. as mentioned at youtu.be/cb_f9KpYipk?t=180 from Video "The transmon qubit by Leo Di Carlo (2018)":

+----------+
| Island 1 |
+----------+
   |   |
   X   C
   |   |
+----------+
| Island 2 |
+----------+

youtu.be/eZJjQGu85Ps?t=2443 from Video "Superconducting Qubits I Part 1 by Zlatko Minev (2020)" describes a (possibly simplified) physical model of it, as two superconducting metal islands linked up by a Josephson junction marked as X in the diagram as per-Ciro's ASCII art circuit diagram notation:

+-------+       +-------+
|       |       |       |
| Q_1() |---X---| Q_2() |
|       |       |       |
+-------+       +-------+

The circuit is then analogous to a LC circuit, with the islands being the capacitor. The Josephson junction functions as a non-linear inductor.

Others define it with a SQUID device instead: youtu.be/cb_f9KpYipk?t=328 from Video "The transmon qubit by Leo Di Carlo (2018)". He mentions that this allows tuning the inductive element without creating a new device.

Video 1.

The superconducting transmon qubit as a microwave resonator by Daniel Sank (2021)

Source.

Video 2.

Calibration of Transmon Superconducting Qubits by Stefan Titus (2021)

Source. Possibly this Keysight which would make sense.

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