Three-wave mixing traveling-wave parametric amplifier with periodic variation of the circuit parameters

  1. Anita Fadavi Roudsari,
  2. Daryoush Shiri,
  3. Hampus Renberg Nilsson,
  4. Giovanna Tancredi,
  5. Amr Osman,
  6. Ida-Maria Svensson,
  7. Marina Kudra,
  8. Marcus Rommel,
  9. Jonas Bylander,
  10. Vitaly Shumeiko,
  11. and Per Delsing
We report the implementation of a near-quantum-limited, traveling-wave parametric amplifier that uses three-wave mixing (3WM). To favor amplification by 3WM, we use the superconducting
nonlinear asymmetric inductive element (SNAIL) loops, biased with a dc magnetic flux. In addition, we equip the device with dispersion engineering features to create a stop-band at the second harmonic of the pump and suppress the propagation of the higher harmonics that otherwise degrade the amplification. With a chain of 440 SNAILs, the amplifier provides up to 20 dB gain and a 3-dB bandwidth of 1 GHz. The added noise by the amplifier is found to be less than one photon.

Quantum efficiency, purity and stability of a tunable, narrowband microwave single-photon source

  1. Yong Lu,
  2. Andreas Bengtsson,
  3. Jonathan J. Burnett,
  4. Baladitya Suri,
  5. Sankar Raman Sathyamoorthy,
  6. Hampus Renberg Nilsson,
  7. Marco Scigliuzzo,
  8. Jonas Bylander,
  9. Göran Johansson,
  10. and Per Delsing
We demonstrate an on-demand source of microwave single photons with 71–99% intrinsic quantum efficiency. The source is narrowband (300unite{kHz}) and tuneable over a 600 MHz
range around 5.2 GHz. Such a device is an important element in numerous quantum technologies and applications. The device consists of a superconducting transmon qubit coupled to the open end of a transmission line. A π-pulse excites the qubit, which subsequently rapidly emits a single photon into the transmission line. A cancellation pulse then suppresses the reflected π-pulse by 33.5 dB, resulting in 0.005 photons leaking into the photon emission channel. We verify strong antibunching of the emitted photon field and determine its Wigner function. Non-radiative decay and 1/f flux noise both affect the quantum efficiency. We also study the device stability over time and identify uncorrelated discrete jumps of the pure dephasing rate at different qubit frequencies on a time scale of hours, which we attribute to independent two-level system defects in the device dielectrics, dispersively coupled to the qubit.