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arXiv:1308.2246 · New Journal of Physics

Observation of Autler–Townes effect in a dispersively dressed Jaynes–Cummings system

Baladitya Suri, Z.K. Keane, Rusko Ruskov, Lev S. Bishop, Charles Tahan, S P Novikov, J. E. Robinson, F. C. Wellstood, B. S. Palmer

Published Dec 5, 2013• 34 citations
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Abstract

We report on the spectrum of a superconducting transmon device coupled to a planar superconducting resonator in the strong dispersive limit where discrete peaks, each corresponding to a different number of photons, are resolved. A thermal population of 5.474 GHz photons at an effective resonator temperature of T = 120 mK results in a weak n = 1 photon peak along with the n = 0 photon peak in the qubit spectrum in the absence of a coherent drive on the resonator. Two-tone spectroscopy using independent coupler and probe tones reveals an Autler–Townes splitting in the thermal n = 1 photon peak. The observed effect is explained accurately using the four lowest levels of the dispersively dressed qubit–resonator system and compared to results from numerical simulations of the steady-state master equation for the coupled system.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/15/12/125007

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We report on the spectrum of a superconducting transmon device coupled to a planar superconducting resonator in the strong dispersive limit where discrete peaks, each corresponding to a different number of photons, are resolved. A thermal population of 5.474 GHz photons at an effective resonator temperature of T = 120 mK results in a weak n = 1 photon peak along with the n = 0 photon peak in the qubit spectrum in the absence of a coherent drive on the resonator. Two-tone spectroscopy using independent coupler and probe tones reveals an Autler–Townes splitting in the thermal n = 1 photon peak. The observed effect is explained accurately using the four lowest levels of the dispersively dressed qubit–resonator system and compared to results from numerical simulations of the steady-state master equation for the coupled system.
We present spectroscopic measurements of the Autler-Townes doublet and the sidebands of the Mollow triplet in a driven superconducting qubit. The ground to first excited state transition of the qubit is strongly pumped while the resulting dressed qubit spectrum is probed with a weak tone. The corresponding transitions are detected using dispersive readout of the qubit coupled off resonantly to a microwave transmission line resonator. The observed frequencies of the Autler-Townes and Mollow spectral lines are in good agreement with a dispersive Jaynes-Cummings model taking into account higher excited qubit states and dispersive level shifts due to off-resonant drives.
We measure photon occupancy in a thin-film superconducting lumped element resonator coupled to a transmon qubit at 20mK20\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mK}20mK and find a nonlinear dependence on the applied microwave power. The transmon-resonator system was operated in the strong dispersive regime, where the ac Stark shift $(2\ensuremath{\chi})$ due to a single microwave photon present in the resonator was larger than the linewidth $(\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}})$ of the qubit transition. When the resonator was coherently driven at 5.474 325 GHz, the transition spectrum of the transmon at 4.982 GHz revealed well-resolved peaks, each corresponding to an individual photon number-state of the resonator. From the relative peak heights we obtain the occupancy of the photon states and the average photon occupancy n‾\overline{n}n of the resonator. We observe a nonlinear variation of n‾\overline{n}n with the applied drive power Prf{P}_{\mathrm{rf}}Prf​ for n‾<5\overline{n}<5n<5 and compare our results to numerical simulations of the system-bath master equation in the steady state, as well as to a semiclassical model for the resonator that includes the Jaynes-Cummings interaction between the transmon and the resonator. We find good quantitative agreement using both models and analysis reveals that the nonlinear behavior is principally due to shifts in the resonant frequency caused by a qubit-induced Jaynes-Cummings nonlinearity.
I discuss the design, fabrication and measurement at millikelvin-temperatures of Al/AlOx_xx​/Al Josephson junction-based transmon qubits coupled to superconducting thin-film lumped element microwave resonators made of aluminum on sapphire. The resonators had a center frequency of around 6 6\,6GHz, and a total quality factor ranging from 15,000 to 70,000 for the various devices. The area of the transmon junctions was about 150 nm×150 nm150\, \mathrm{nm} \times 150\, \mathrm{nm}150nm×150nm and with Josephson energy EJE_JEJ​ such that 10 GHz≤EJ/h≤30 10\,\text{GHz} \leq E_J / h \leq 30\,10GHz≤EJ​/h≤30GHz. The charging energy of the transmons arising mostly from the large interdigital shunt capacitance, was Ec/h≈300 E_c / h \approx 300\,Ec​/h≈300MHz. I present microwave spectroscopy of the devices in the strongly dispersive regime of circuit quantum electrodynamics. In this limit the ac Stark shift due to a single photon in the resonator is greater than the linewidth of the qubit transition. When the resonator is driven coherently using a coupler tone, the transmon spectrum reveals individual ``photon number'' peaks, each corresponding to a single additional photon in the resonator. Using a weighted average of the peak heights in the qubit spectrum, I calculated the average number of photons nˉ\bar{n}nˉ in the resonator. I also observed a nonlinear variation of nˉ\bar{n}nˉ with the applied power of the coupler tone PrfP_{rf}Prf​. I studied this nonlinearity using numerical simulations and found good qualitative agreement with data. In the absence of a coherent drive on the resonator, a thermal population of 5.474 5.474\,5.474GHz photons in the resonator, at an effective temperature of 120 120\,120mK resulted in a weak n=1n=1n=1 thermal photon peak in the qubit spectrum. In the presence of independent coupler and probe tones, the n=1n=1n=1 thermal photon peak revealed an Autler-Townes splitting. The observed effect was explained accurately using the four lowest levels of the dispersively dressed Jaynes-Cummings transmon-resonator system, and numerical simulations of the steady-state master equation for the coupled system. I also present time-domain measurements on transmons coupled to lumped-element resonators. From T1T_1T1​ and Rabi oscillation measurements, I found that my early transmon devices (called design LEv5) had lifetimes (T1∼1 μT_1 \sim 1\,\muT1​∼1μs) limited by strong coupling to the 50 Ω50\,\Omega50Ω transmission line. This coupling was characterized by the the rate of change of the Rabi oscillation frequency with the change in the drive voltage (dfRabi /dV\mathrm{d}f_{Rabi}\, / \mathrm{d}VdfRabi​/dV) -- also termed the Rabi coupling to the drive. I studied the design of the transmon-resonator system using circuit analysis and microwave simulations with the aim being to reduce the Rabi coupling to the drive. By increasing the resonance frequency of the resonator ωr/2π\omega_r/2\piωr​/2π from 5.4 \,GHz to 7.2 \,GHz, lowering the coupling of the resonator to the transmission line and thereby increasing the external quality factor QeQ_eQe​ from 20,000 to 70,000, and reducing the transmon-resonator coupling g/2πg/2\pig/2π from 70 \,MHz to 40 \,MHz, I reduced the Rabi coupling to the drive by an order of magnitude (∼\sim∼ factor of 20). The T1∼4 μT_1 \sim 4\,\muT1​∼4μs of devices in the new design (LEv6) was longer than that of the early devices, but still much shorter than the lifetimes predicted from Rabi coupling, suggesting the presence of alternative sources of noise causing qubit relaxation. Microwave simulations and circuit analysis in the presence of a dielectric loss tangent tan⁡δ≃5×10−6\tan \delta \simeq 5\times10^{-6}tanδ≃5×10−6 agree reasonably well with the measured T1T_1T1​ values, suggesting that surface dielectric loss may be causing relaxation of transmons in the new designs.
We have observed the Autler-Townes doublet in a superconducting Al/AlOX{}_{X}X​/Al transmon qubit that acts as an artificial atom embedded in a three-dimensional Cu microwave cavity at a temperature of 22 mK. Using pulsed microwave spectroscopy, the three lowest transmon levels are isolated, eliminating unwanted effects of higher qubit modes and cavity modes. The long coherence time ($\ensuremath{\sim}$$40\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\text{s}$) of the transmon enables us to observe a clear Autler-Townes splitting at drive amplitudes much smaller than the transmon level anharmonicity (177 MHz). Three-level density matrix simulations with no free parameters provide excellent fits to the data. At maximum separation, the fidelity of a dark state achieved in this experiment is estimated to be 99.699.6%--99.9%99.6.
We have created a quantum three-level ladder system with the cavity dispersive energy level in a superconducting circuit quantum electrodynamics system consisting of a transmon qubit and a cavity, and have directly observed the Autler-Townes splitting effect instead of representing it by the probability of the qubit being at each level. A coupler tone is applied on the transition between the second excited state of transmon and cavity dispersive level, while the cavity spectrum is probed. A doublet transmission and anormalous dispersion spectrum of the cavity level is clearly shown. The inverse Fourier transform of cavity spectrum indicates that there is a quantum coherence Rabi oscillation of the populations between cavity and qubit.
The damped and coherently-driven JaynesndashndashndashCummings model
We investigate the influence of a single-mode cavity on the Autler–Townes doublet that arises when a three-level atom is strongly driven by a laser field tuned to one of the atomic transitions and probed by a tunable, weak field coupled to the other transition. We assume that the cavity mode is coupled to the driven transition and the cavity and laser frequencies are equal to the atomic transition frequency. We find that the Autler–Townes spectrum can have one, two or three peaks depending on the relative magnitudes of the Rabi frequencies of the cavity and driving fields. We show that, in order to understand the three-peaked spectrum, it is necessary to go beyond the secular approximation, leading to interesting quantum interference effects. We find that the positions and relative intensities of the three spectral components are affected strongly by the atom–cavity coupling strength g and the cavity damping κ. For an increasing g and/or decreasing κ the triplet evolves into a single peak. This results in 'undressing' of the system such that the atom collapses into its ground state. We interpret the spectral features in terms of the semiclassical dressed-atom model, and also provide complementary views of the cavity effects in terms of quantum Langevin equations and the fully quantized, 'double-dressing' model.