Quantum channels can describe all transformations allowed by quantum mechanics. We adapt two existing works [S. Lloyd and L. Viola, Phys. Rev. A 65, 010101 (2001) and E. Andersson and D. K. L. Oi, Phys. Rev. A 77, 052104 (2008)] to superconducting circuits, featuring a single qubit ancilla with quantum nondemolition readout and adaptive control. This construction is efficient in both ancilla dimension and circuit depth. We point out various applications of quantum channel construction, including system stabilization and quantum error correction, Markovian and exotic channel simulation, implementation of generalized quantum measurements, and more general quantum instruments. Efficient construction of arbitrary quantum channels opens up exciting new possibilities for quantum control, quantum sensing, and information processing tasks.

• Received 18 November 2016
• Revised 26 February 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.134501