Pulsed radiofrequency linacs for studying radiation induced upsets in superconducting qubits

The interaction of ionizing radiation with superconducting qubits can lead to large-scale correlated upset errors that are problematic, as they cannot be fixed by conventional error correction techniques. To date, these radiation induced errors have been studied using the natural radiation in the environment and manmade radioactive sources, neither of which easily lend themselves to time correlating the radiation to the qubit upset event. In this presentation, we will describe a recently constructed facility that couples a 25 MeV pulsed radiofrequency electron linac and a dilution refrigerator that houses the superconducting qubits. This facility allows precise time correlation between the electrons from the accelerator and the qubit system response, thereby greatly simplifying the study of ionizing radiation induced upset events in superconducting qubits.