qupulse: A quantum computing pulse parametrization and sequencing framework

We present an open source python package for the operation of advanced qubit control experiments, which emerged from our experimental work on spin qubits. It allows for hierarchical definition of control pulses and pulse sequences with an arbitrary nesting depth in a hardware-independent way.

Pulses can be described in terms of symbolic parameters. Reparametrization by mathematical expressions, for example when combining or sequencing pulses, is possible. This enables the simple generation of parameter sweeps and the reuse of predefined pulses. qupulse also exploits the sequencing capabilities of different arbitrary waveform generators for efficient use of waveform memory. Futhermore, serialization to JSON allows for a straightforward documentation of experiments and simplifies exchanging pulses between researchers.

In order to automatically configure acquisition hardware and simplify the data analysis, measurements can be specified as part of the pulse definition. We designed qupulse to interact with different instrument control and data acquisition frameworks such as QCodeS, special-measure (currently implemented) and labber.

qupulse is available at github.com/qutech/qupulse or quantuminfo.physik.rwth-aachen.de/code, accompanied by extensive documentation.