Design of an RSFQ control circuit to observe MQC on an rf-SQUID

We believe that the best chance to observe macroscopic quantum coherence (M QC) in an rf-SQUID qubit is to use on-chip RSFQ digital circuits for prepar ing, evolving and reading out the qubit's quantum state. This approach allo ws experiments to be conducted on a very short time scale (sub-nanosecond) without the use of large bandwidth control lines that would couple environm ental degrees of freedom to the qubit, thus contributing to its decoherence . In this paper we present our design of an RSFQ digital control circuit fo r demonstrating MQC in an rf-SQUID. We assess some of the key practical iss ues in the circuit design including the achievement of the necessary nux bi as stability. We present an "active" isolation structure to be used to incr ease coherence times. The structure decouples the SQUID from external degre es of freedom, and then couples it to the output measurement circuitry when required, all under the active control of RSFQ circuits.