Silent phase qubit based on d -wave Josephson junctions

We report on design and fabrication of a new type of flux qubit that capitalizes on intrinsic properties of submicron YBCO grain boundary junctions. The operating point is protected from the fluctuations of the external fields, already on the classical level; the effects of external perturbations are absent, to the second or third order, depending on the character of the coupling. We propose an experiment to observe quantum tunneling and Rabi oscillations in the qubit. Estimate of the decoherence due to fluctuations of the external flux is presented.