We introduce an approach to studying a driven qubit-oscillator system in the ultrastrong coupling regime, where the ratio $g/\ensuremath{\Omega}$ between coupling strength and oscillator frequency approaches unity or goes beyond, and simultaneously for driving strengths much bigger than the qubit energy splitting (extreme driving). Both qubit-oscillator coupling and external driving lead to a dressing of the qubit tunneling matrix element of different nature: the former can be used to suppress selectively certain oscillator modes in the spectrum, while the latter can bring the qubit's dynamics to a standstill at short times (coherent destruction of tunneling) even in the case of ultrastrong coupling.
We introduce an approach to studying a driven qubit-oscillator system in the ultrastrong coupling regime, where the ratio g/\ensuremathΩ between coupling strength and oscillator frequency approaches unity or goes beyond, and simultaneously for driving strengths much bigger than the qubit energy splitting (extreme driving). Both qubit-oscillator coupling and external driving lead to a dressing of the qubit tunneling matrix element of different nature: the former can be used to suppress selectively certain oscillator modes in the spectrum, while the latter can bring the qubit's dynamics to a standstill at short times (coherent destruction of tunneling) even in the case of ultrastrong coupling.
We examine a two-level system coupled to a quantum oscillator, typically representing experiments in cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamics. We show how such a system can be treated analytically in the ultrastrong coupling limit, where the ratio $g/\ensuremath{\Omega}$ between coupling strength and oscillator frequency approaches unity and goes beyond. In this regime the Jaynes-Cummings model is known to fail because counter-rotating terms have to be taken into account. By using Van Vleck perturbation theory to higher orders in the qubit tunneling matrix element $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ we are able to enlarge the regime of applicability of existing analytical treatments, including, in particular, also the finite-bias case. We present a detailed discussion on the energy spectrum of the system and on the dynamics of the qubit for an oscillator at low temperature. We consider the coupling strength g to all orders, and the validity of our approach is even enhanced in the ultrastrong coupling regime. Looking at the Fourier spectrum of the population difference, we find that many frequencies contribute to the dynamics. They are gathered into groups whose spacing depends on the qubit-oscillator detuning. Furthermore, the dynamics is not governed anymore by a vacuum Rabi splitting which scales linearly with g, but by a nontrivial dressing of the tunneling matrix element, which can be used to suppress specific frequencies through a variation of the coupling.
The model of a two-level system (TLS) coupled to a harmonic oscillator has found a widespread application in physics and chemistry. In this thesis we focus on the field of circuit quantum electrodynamics where the TLS stands for a quantum bit (qubit), which is the basic building unit of a potential quantum computer, and the oscillator represents a transmission-line resonator, which can be used, e.g., to store information contained on the qubit or for communication between several qubits. Furthermore, the oscillator can model a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) determining the state of the qubit. In first experimental realizations the coupling between the qubit and the oscillator was small compared to characteristic frequencies of the two devices. In such a situation the Jaynes-Cummings model provides a realistic and completely analytical description of the energy spectrum and the dynamics of the setup. However, it relies on a rotating-wave approximation (RWA) which neglects counter-rotating terms in the full qubit-oscillator Hamiltonian. These counter-rotating terms become important under increase of the coupling strength, as it has been achieved in recent experiments. We present two analytical approaches to take these additional contributions into account: The first one treats the qubit-oscillator Hamiltonian perturbatively in the coupling strength and predicts a frequency shift in its energy spectrum, the Bloch-Siegert shift. The second one considers the qubit's tunneling splitting as small parameter and thus treats the problem to all orders in the coupling allowing to enter the ultrastrong coupling regime, where the coupling strength becomes comparable to the qubit's and/or oscillator's frequency. For both cases we give a thorough analysis of the qubit's dynamics. In order to perform operations the qubit is usually probed by an external driving force. We model this situation by coupling the TLS to a classical oscillator and examine the resulting time dependent Hamiltonian using a combination of Floquet theory and Van Vleck perturbation theory. Thus, we provide an analysis of the qubit's energy spectrum and dynamics which is nonperturbative in the driving amplitude. We investigate effects like coherent destruction of tunneling and driving-inducing tunneling oscillations. By coupling the driven TLS to a quantized oscillator we give for the first time an analytical treatment of the qubit-oscillator system being simultaneously exposed to both ultrastrong coupling and extreme driving. We observe interesting phenomena in the dynamics like the suppression of specific frequencies under a variation of the coupling strength. To mimic environmental influences on the qubit we apply the Caldeira-Leggett master equation approach to the driven TLS and to the qubit-oscillator system and provide for both cases analytical expressions for the relaxation and dephasing rates.
We present theoretical transmission spectra of a strongly driven, damped flux qubit coupled to a dissipative resonator in the ultrastrong-coupling regime. Such a qubit-oscillator system, described within a dissipative Rabi model, constitutes the building block of superconducting circuit QED platforms. The addition of a strong drive allows one to characterize the system properties and study novel phenomena, leading to a better understanding and control of the qubit-oscillator system. In this work, the calculated transmission of a weak probe field quantifies the response of the qubit, in frequency domain, under the influence of the quantized resonator and of the strong microwave drive. We find distinctive features of the entangled driven qubit-resonator spectrum, namely resonant features and avoided crossings, modified by the presence of the dissipative environment. The magnitude, positions, and broadening of these features are determined by the interplay among qubit-oscillator detuning, the strength of their coupling, the driving amplitude, and the interaction with the heat bath. This work establishes the theoretical basis for future experiments in the driven ultrastrong-coupling regime.
We study the system involving mutual interaction between three qubits and an oscillator within the ultrastrong coupling regime. We apply the adiabatic approximation approach to explore two extreme regimes: (i) the oscillator's frequency is far larger than each qubit's frequency and (ii) the qubit's frequency is far larger than the oscillator's frequency, and analyze the energy-level spectrum and the ground-state property of the qubit-oscillator system under the conditions of various system parameters. For the energy-level spectrum, we concentrate on studying the degeneracy in low-energy levels. For the ground state, we focus on its nonclassical properties that are necessary for preparing the nonclassical states. We show that the minimum qubit-oscillator coupling strength needed for generating the nonclassical states of the Schr\"odinger-cat type in the oscillator is just one half of that in the Rabi model. We find that the qubit-qubit entanglement in the ground state vanishes if the qubit-oscillator coupling strength is strong enough, for which the entropy of three qubits remains larger than 1. We also observe the phase-transition-like behavior in the regime where the qubit's frequency is far larger than the oscillator's frequency.
When the coupling rate between two quantum systems becomes as large as their characteristic frequencies, it induces dramatic effects on their dynamics and even on the nature of their ground state. The case of a qubit coupled to a harmonic oscillator in this ultrastrong coupling regime has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. Here, we explore the case of two harmonic oscillators in the ultrastrong coupling regime. Probing the properties of their ground state remains out of reach in natural implementations. Therefore, we have realized an analog quantum simulation of this coupled system by dual frequency pumping a nonlinear superconducting circuit. The pump amplitudes directly tune the effective coupling rate. We observe spectroscopic signature of a mode hybridization that is characteristic of the ultrastrong coupling. We experimentally demonstrate a key property of the ground state of this simulated ultrastrong coupling between modes by observing simultaneous single- and two-mode squeezing of the radiated field below vacuum fluctuations.
We consider the quantum Rabi model as an open system that is subject to dissipation, dephasing, and sinusoidal qubit driving. One can change to an interaction picture where the qubit-driving term disappears at the expense of changing the free energy of the qubit which becomes time dependent. If the driving frequency is large with respect to the rest of the parameters with the exception of the driving strength, then one can obtain an effective Hamiltonian that accurately describes the dynamics of the system. The driving has two effects: the qubit-transition frequency is changed and the qubit has reduced dephasing. The driving strength can be chosen so that the qubit-transition frequency is reduced, made equal to zero, or even made negative so that the excited and ground states of the qubit are interchanged. Therefore, sinusoidal qubit driving offers another method to control the qubit-transition frequency and to reduce qubit dephasing. Adjusting the driving strength allows one to consider a qubit with degenerate energy levels. Not taking dissipation into account, the evolution operator of the qubit-harmonic oscillator system is given by a linear combination of the orthogonal projectors onto the eigenstates of ${\stackrel{\ifmmode \hat{}\else \^{}\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}_{x}$ followed by the evolution operator of a forced harmonic oscillator, the harmonic oscillator can be prepared in such a way that it is always found in a Schr\"odinger cat state, and the transition probability of the qubit can exhibit a collapse-revival behavior. In addition, the Born-Markov-secular master equation is deduced and the effects of dissipation are presented. In particular, smaller ultrastrong-coupling values are preferable over larger ultrastrong-coupling values and deep strong-coupling values in order to have long-lived, easily distinguishable Schr\"odinger cat states because the decoherence rate is inversely proportional to the square of the coupling. Finally, the qubit-harmonic oscillator system can be prepared in highly entangled states that are stable under dissipation.