Fast readout of a single Cooper-pair box using its quantum capacitance

Journal article, 2010

We have fabricated a single Cooper-pair box (SCB) together with an on-chip lumped element resonator. By utilizing the quantum capacitance of the SCB, its state can be read out by detecting the phase of a radio-frequency signal reflected off the resonator. The resonator was optimized for fast readout. By studying quasiparticle tunneling events in the SCB, we have characterized the performance of the readout and found that we can perform a single-shot parity measurement, with a signal-to-noise ratio of 1, in approximately 50 ns. This is an order of magnitude faster than previously reported measurements.