High-efficiency measurement of an artificial atom embedded in a parametric amplifier

  1. A. Eddins,
  2. J.M. Kreikebaum,
  3. D.M. Toyli,
  4. E.M. Levenson-Falk,
  5. A. Dove,
  6. W.P. Livingston,
  7. B.A. Levitan,
  8. L. C. G. Govia,
  9. A. A. Clerk,
  10. and I. Siddiqi
A crucial limit to measurement efficiencies of superconducting circuits comes from losses involved when coupling to an external quantum amplifier. Here, we realize a device circumventing
this problem by directly embedding a two-level artificial atom, comprised of a transmon qubit, within a flux-pumped Josephson parametric amplifier. Surprisingly, this configuration is able to enhance dispersive measurement without exposing the qubit to appreciable excess backaction. This is accomplished by engineering the circuit to permit high-power operation that reduces information loss to unmonitored channels associated with the amplification and squeezing of quantum noise. By mitigating the effects of off-chip losses downstream, the on-chip gain of this device produces end-to-end measurement efficiencies of up to 80 percent. Our theoretical model accurately describes the observed interplay of gain and measurement backaction, and delineates the parameter space for future improvement. The device is compatible with standard fabrication and measurement techniques, and thus provides a route for definitive investigations of fundamental quantum effects and quantum control protocols.

Resonance fluorescence from an artificial atom in squeezed vacuum

  1. D.M. Toyli,
  2. A.W. Eddins,
  3. S. Boutin,
  4. S. Puri,
  5. D. Hover,
  6. V. Bolkhovsky,
  7. W. D. Oliver,
  8. A. Blais,
  9. and I. Siddiqi
We present an experimental realization of resonance fluorescence in squeezed vacuum. We strongly couple microwave-frequency squeezed light to a superconducting artificial atom and detect
the resulting fluorescence with high resolution enabled by a broadband traveling-wave parametric amplifier. We investigate the fluorescence spectra in the weak and strong driving regimes, observing up to 3.1 dB of reduction of the fluorescence linewidth below the ordinary vacuum level and a dramatic dependence of the Mollow triplet spectrum on the relative phase of the driving and squeezed vacuum fields. Our results are in excellent agreement with predictions for spectra produced by a two-level atom in squeezed vacuum [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{58}, 2539-2542 (1987)], demonstrating that resonance fluorescence offers a resource-efficient means to characterize squeezing in cryogenic environments.