Direct Wigner tomography of a superconducting anharmonic oscillator

  1. Yoni Shalibo,
  2. Roy Resh,
  3. Ofer Fogel,
  4. David Shwa,
  5. Radoslaw Bialczak,
  6. John M. Martinis,
  7. and Nadav Katz
The analysis of wave-packet dynamics may be greatly simplified when viewed in phase-space. While harmonic oscillators are often used as a convenient platform to study wave-packets, arbitrary state preparation in these systems is more challenging. Here, we demonstrate a direct measurement of the Wigner distribution of complex photon states in an anharmonic oscillator – a superconducting phase circuit, biased in the small anharmonicity regime. We test our method on both non-classical states composed of two energy eigenstates and on the dynamics of a phase-locked wavepacket. This method requires a simple calibration, and is easily applicable in our system out to the fifth level.
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