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arXiv:1012.2916 · Low Temperature Physics

Optimal cooling of a driven artificial atom in dissipative environment

Lingjie Du, Yang Yu, Dong Lan

Published Feb 1, 2013• 2 citations
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Abstract

We study microwave-driven cooling in a superconducting flux qubit subjected to environment noise. For weak decoherence, our analytical results agree well with the experimental observations and show that the microwave amplitude for optimal cooling should depend linearly on the dc flux detuning. With the decoherence getting stronger, more vibrational degrees of freedom (analogous to atomic physics) couple in, making the ordinary cooling method less effective or even fail. We propose an improved cooling method, which can eliminate the perturbation of additional vibrational degrees of freedom hence keep high efficiency, even under strong decoherence. Furthermore, we point out that decoherence can tune the frequency where microwave-driven Landau–Zener transition reaches maximum, displaying the feature of incoherent dynamics, which is important for the optimal cooling of qubits and other quantum systems.

DOI
10.1063/1.4791768

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We study microwave-driven cooling in a superconducting flux qubit subjected to environment noise. For weak decoherence, our analytical results agree well with the experimental observations and show that the microwave amplitude for optimal cooling should depend linearly on the dc flux detuning. With the decoherence getting stronger, more vibrational degrees of freedom (analogous to atomic physics) couple in, making the ordinary cooling method less effective or even fail. We propose an improved cooling method, which can eliminate the perturbation of additional vibrational degrees of freedom hence keep high efficiency, even under strong decoherence. Furthermore, we point out that decoherence can tune the frequency where microwave-driven Landau–Zener transition reaches maximum, displaying the feature of incoherent dynamics, which is important for the optimal cooling of qubits and other quantum systems.
Landau–Zener–Stückelberg (LZS) interference of continuously driven superconducting qubits is studied. Going beyond the second order perturbation expansion, we find a time dependent stationary population evolution as well as unsymmetrical microwave driven Landau–Zener transitions, resulting from the nonresonant terms which are neglected in rotating-wave approximation. For the low-frequency driving, the qubit population at equilibrium is a periodical function of time, owing to the contribution of the nonresonant terms. In order to obtain the average population, it is found that the average approximation based on the perturbation approach can be applied to the low-frequency region. For the extremely low frequency which is much smaller than the decoherence rate, we develop noncoherence approximation by dividing the evolution into discrete time steps during which the coherence is lost totally. These approximations present comprehensive analytical descriptions of LZS interference in most of parameter space of frequency and decoherence rate, agreeing well with those of the numerical simulations and providing a simple but integrated understanding to system dynamics. The application of our models to microwave cooling can obtain the minimal frequency to realize effective microwave cooling.
We demonstrated microwave-induced cooling in a superconducting flux qubit. The thermal population in the first-excited state of the qubit is driven to a higher-excited state by way of a sideband transition. Subsequent relaxation into the ground state results in cooling. Effective temperatures as low as approximately 3 millikelvin are achieved for bath temperatures of 30 to 400 millikelvin, a cooling factor between 10 and 100. This demonstration provides an analog to optical cooling of trapped ions and atoms and is generalizable to other solid-state quantum systems. Active cooling of qubits, applied to quantum information science, provides a means for qubit-state preparation with improved fidelity and for suppressing decoherence in multi-qubit systems.
We infer the high-frequency flux noise spectrum in a superconducting flux qubit by studying the decay of Rabi oscillations under strong driving conditions. The large anharmonicity of the qubit and its strong inductive coupling to a microwave line enabled high-amplitude driving without causing significant additional decoherence. Rabi frequencies up to 1.7 GHz were achieved, approaching the qubit's level splitting of 4.8 GHz, a regime where the rotating-wave approximation breaks down as a model for the driven dynamics. The spectral density of flux noise observed in the wide frequency range decreases with increasing frequency up to 300 MHz, where the spectral density is not very far from the extrapolation of the 1/f1/f1/f spectrum obtained from the free-induction-decay measurements. We discuss a possible origin of the flux noise due to surface electron spins.
Superconducting qubits coupled to electric or nanomechanical resonators display effects previously studied in quantum electrodynamics (QED) as well as extensions thereof. Here, we consider a driven qubit coupled to a low-frequency oscillator and study the influence of dissipation. When the qubit is driven to perform Rabi oscillations, with Rabi frequency in resonance with the oscillator, the latter can be driven far from equilibrium. Blue detuned driving leads to a population inversion in the qubit and lasing behavior of the oscillator ('single-atom laser'). For red detuning, the qubit cools the oscillator. This behavior persists at the symmetry point where the qubit–oscillator coupling is quadratic and decoherence effects are minimized. Here, the system realizes a 'single-atom-two-photon laser'.
In this thesis work, the quantum behavior of a superconducting circuit implementing a quantum bit or qubit is studied. With the use of resonant microwave pulses the full manipulation of the quantum state of this system is demonstrated: any rotation of the state vector around the Bloch sphere can be achieved and by using particular NMR inspired sequences of microwave pulses, the robustness of an operation against particular types of errors, like slow fluctuations of the transition frequency of the qubit, can be improved. The phenomenon of decoherence which drives the system from a quantum behavior to a classical one, has been characterized in the free evolution regime. By properly tuning the working point in the external parameter space, the qubit can be decoupled to first order from the fluctuations of its environment, thus enhancing coherence. In these optimal conditions, low frequency charge noise probably of microscopic origin appears to be the limiting source of decoherence for our system. The study of decoherence during driven evolution demonstrated that by suppressing the effect of those fluctuations of the environment slower than that of the driving field, the coherence of the qubit can be improved. Finally a new non-dissipative readout method based on microwave reflectometry has been set up, which improves the sensitivity and could in principle lead to a non-demolition measurement of the qubit state.
In this thesis work, the quantum behavior of a superconducting circuit implementing a quantum bit or qubit is studied. With the use of resonant microwave pulses the full manipulation of the quantum state of this system is demonstrated: any rotation of the state vector around the Bloch sphere can be achieved and by using particular NMR inspired sequences of microwave pulses, the robustness of an operation against particular types of errors, like slow fluctuations of the transition frequency of the qubit, can be improved. The phenomenon of decoherence which drives the system from a quantum behavior to a classical one, has been characterized in the free evolution regime. By properly tuning the working point in the external parameter space, the qubit can be decoupled to first order from the fluctuations of its environment, thus enhancing coherence. In these optimal conditions, low frequency charge noise probably of microscopic origin appears to be the limiting source of decoherence for our system. The study of decoherence during driven evolution demonstrated that by suppressing the effect of those fluctuations of the environment slower than that of the driving field, the coherence of the qubit can be improved. Finally a new non-dissipative readout method based on microwave reflectometry has been set up, which improves the sensitivity and could in principle lead to a non-demolition measurement of the qubit state.