Flux Crosstalk Calibration from Zero Knowledge to High Precision in Fully Tunable Superconducting Circuits

Abstract

Precise and independent flux control is essential for scalable superconducting processors built from frequency-tunable qubits and couplers, but flux crosstalk undermines it. Conventional calibration methods rely either on dedicated readout channels, which tunable couplers typically lack, or on readout schemes requiring extensive prior spectroscopy of the qubit and coupler. We demonstrate two independent methods that characterize coupler flux crosstalk without directly driving or measuring the couplers. The first method is zero-knowledge characterization, which exploits intrinsic coupler-resonator coupling to yield rapid and accurate estimates with no prior qubit or coupler spectroscopy, accelerating large scale bring-up. The second method is symmetric branch cancellation, which isolates crosstalk from other dispersive effects allowing for quantifying with high precision. Combined with an improved iterative procedure, these methods suppress residual coupler crosstalk below $5\times10^{-5}$, providing a complete route from zero-knowledge initialization to high-precision crosstalk characterization in fully tunable architectures.