Control of transition frequency of a superconducting flux qubit by longitudinal coupling to the photon number degree of freedom in a resonator

We control transition frequency of a superconducting flux qubit coupled to a frequency-tunable resonator comprising a direct current superconducting quantum interference device (dc-SQUID) by microwave driving. The dc-SQUID mediates the coupling between microwave photons in the resonator and a flux qubit. The polarity of the frequency shift depends on the sign of the flux bias for the qubit and can be both positive and negative. The absolute value of the frequency shift becomes larger by increasing the photon number in the resonator. These behaviors are reproduced by a model considering the magnetic interaction between the flux qubit and dc-SQUID. The tuning range of the transition frequency of the flux qubit reaches ≈ 1.9 GHz, which is much larger than the ac Stark/Lamb shift observed in the dispersive regime using typical circuit quantum electrodynamics devices.