Measurement of Dissipation of a Three-Level rf SQUID Qubit

The dissipation-induced relaxation (T_1) time of a macroscopic quantum system - a \{lambda}-type three-level rf SQUID flux qubit weakly coupled to control and readout circuitry (CRC) - is investigated via time-domain measurement. The measured interwell relaxation time of the qubit's first excited state, T_1=3.45+/-0.06 \{mu}s, corresponds to an effective damping resistance of the flux qubit R=1.6+/-0.1 M\{omega} which is much lower than the intrinsic quasiparticle resistance of the Josephson tunnel junction. An analysis of the system shows that although the CRC is very weakly coupled to the qubit it is the primary source of damping. This type of damping can be significantly reduced by the use of more sophisticated circuit design to allow coherent manipulation of qubit states.