Circuit Quantum Acoustics: Demonstrating quantum control of phonons with superconducting circuits.

Abstract: By joining long-lived mechanical resonators with superconducting circuits, the emerging field of circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) demonstrated increasingly impressive quantum control over phonons. However, owing to their reliance on piezoelectric media which may inadvertently couple to spurious acoustic modes, these systems have suffered from qubit lifetimes two orders of magnitude shorter than those on more favorable dielectrics. In this talk, I will discuss the state of the field and our efforts in the Lehnert lab to mitigate the deleterious effects of this piezoelectric loss.