Solid state electrical circuits which behave as quantum mechanically as atoms are now developed and thus can serve as quantum bits circuits.

These artificial atoms allow to revisit important questions in quantum mechanics: the quantum-classical limit since they can be placed in both regimes, or the quantum measurement issue, which is still an unsatisfactorily solved problem.

Quantum bit (qubit) circuits, which might already provide the building blocks for a rudimentary/ elementary quantum processor, have been recently operated. The existing implementations are mostly based either on semi-conducting circuits, in which case qubits are encoded in the quantum state of an electron, or on superconducting circuits, in which case qubits are encoded in the quantum state of the global circuit.

These superconducting (SC) circuits, based on Josephson junctions, are presently the most advanced solid-state systems. The lectures will provide a general introduction to quantum electrical circuits and to the various implementations of quantum bit circuits.

The different flavours of SC Josephson qubits will be described. The main experimental results will be discussed, and some recent advances will be introduced.

*Due to unforeseeable circumstances, the lecturer will not be able to join us and this set of lectures have been canceled.