Circuit QED Emission Spectra in the Ultrastrong Coupling Regime: How They Differ from Cavity QED

  1. Samuel Napoli,
  2. Alberto Mercurio,
  3. Daniele Lamberto,
  4. Andrea Zappalà,
  5. Omar Di Stefano,
  6. and Salvatore Savasta
Cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) studies the interaction between resonator-confined radiation and natural atoms or other formally equivalent quantum excitations, under conditions
where the quantum nature of photons is relevant. Phenomena studied in cavity QED can also be explored using superconducting artificial atoms and microwave photons in superconducting resonators. These circuit QED systems offer the possibility to reach the ultrastrong coupling regime with individual artificial atoms, unlike their natural counterparts. In this regime, the light-matter coupling rate reaches a considerable fraction of the bare resonance frequencies in the system. Here, we provide a careful analysis of the emission spectra in circuit QED systems consisting of a flux qubit interacting with an LC resonator. Despite these systems can be described by the quantum Rabi model, as the corresponding cavity QED ones, we find distinctive features, depending on how the system is coupled with the output port, which become evident in the ultrastrong coupling regime.