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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Rapid on-demand generation of thermal states in superconducting quantum circuits

Timm Mörstedt1,*, Wallace S. Teixeira1, Arto Viitanen1, Heidi Kivijärvi1, Maaria Tiiri1, Miika Rasola1, Andras Marton Gunyho1, Suman Kundu1, Louis Lattier1 et al.

Vasilii Vadimov1, Gianluigi Catelani2,3, Vasilii Sevriuk4, Johannes Heinsoo4, Jukka Räbinä4, Joachim Ankerhold5, and Mikko Möttönen1,6,†

  • *Contact author: timm.morstedt@aalto.fi
  • †Contact author: mikko.mottonen@aalto.fi
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042010 – Published 7 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6bty-836h

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate the fast generation of thermal states of a transmon using a single-junction quantum-circuit refrigerator (QCR) as an in situ tunable environment. Through single-shot readout, we monitor the transmon up to its third excited state, assessing population distributions controlled by QCR drive pulses. Whereas cooling can be achieved in the weak-drive regime, high-amplitude pulses can generate Boltzmann-distributed populations from a temperature of 110 mK up to 500 mK within 100 ns. As we propose in our work, this fast and efficient temperature control provides an appealing opportunity to demonstrate a quantum heat engine. Our results also pave the way for efficient dissipative state preparation and for reducing the circuit depth in thermally assisted quantum algorithms and quantum annealing.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042010– Published 7 October, 2025
  • Received 21 February 2024
  • Accepted 13 August 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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