Resonant excitation of single and coupled qubits for coherent quantum control and microwave detection

  1. O.A. Ilinskaya,
  2. and S. N. Shevchenko
Resonant driving enables coherent control of quantum systems, including single and coupled qubits. From a complementary perspective, transitions of a quantum system can be exploited
for the detection of microwave photons. In this work, we theoretically investigate resonant multiphoton excitations in a system of qubits. When the energy of K photons matches the energy splitting of the qubit system, the absorption of these photons leads to collective excitation of the qubits. We focus on the case of two coupled qubits and analyze the quantum dynamics of both excitation and relacation processes. In the particular case where only a single qubit is relevant and the remaining qubits can be neglected, the dynamics admits an analytical treatment. We examine multiphoton resonances, the Bloch-Siegert shift, and population inversion, phenomena that are central to both coherent quantum control and microwave photon detection.

Mirror, mirror: Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg-Majorana interferometry of a superconducting qubit in front of a mirror

  1. P. Y. Wen,
  2. O. V. Ivakhnenko,
  3. M. A. Nakonechnyi,
  4. B. Suri,
  5. J.-J. Lin,
  6. W.-J. Lin,
  7. J. C. Chen,
  8. S. N. Shevchenko,
  9. Franco Nori,
  10. and I.-C. Hoi
We investigate the Landau-Zener-Stuckelberg-Majorana interferometry of a superconducting qubit in a semi-infinite transmission line terminated by a mirror. The transmon-type qubit is
at the node of the resonant electromagnetic (EM) field, hiding from the EM field. „Mirror, mirror“ briefly describes this system, because the qubit acts as another mirror. We modulate the resonant frequency of the qubit by applying a sinusoidal flux pump. We probe the spectroscopy by measuring the reflection coefficient of a weak probe in the system. Remarkable interference patterns emerge in the spectrum, which can be interpreted as multi-photon resonances in the dressed qubit. Our calculations agree well with the experiments.

Landau-Zener-Stückelberg-Majorana lasing in circuit QED

  1. P. Neilinger,
  2. S. N. Shevchenko,
  3. J. Bogár,
  4. M. Rehák,
  5. G. Oelsner,
  6. D. S. Karpov,
  7. O. Astafiev,
  8. M. Grajcar,
  9. and E. Il'ichev
We demonstrate amplification (and attenuation) of a probe signal by a driven two-level quantum system in the Landau-Zener regime. In the experiment, a superconducting qubit was strongly
coupled to a microwave cavity, the conventional arrangement of circuit quantum electrodynamics. Two different types of flux qubits show a similar result, lasing at the points where amplification takes place. The experimental data are explained by the interaction of the probe signal with Rabi-like oscillations. The latter are created by constructive interference of Landau-Zener-St\“{u}ckelberg-Majorana (LZSM) transitions during the driving period of the qubit. A detailed description of the occurrence of these oscillations and a comparison of obtained data with both analytic and numerical calculations are given.