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arXiv:1603.06615 · Physical Review Letters

Continuous-Wave Single-Photon Transistor Based on a Superconducting Circuit

Oleksandr Kyriienko, Anders Søndberg Sørensen

Published Sep 28, 2016• 58 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose a microwave frequency single-photon transistor which can operate under continuous wave probing and represents an efficient single microwave photon detector. It can be realized using an impedance matched system of a three level artificial ladder-type atom coupled to two microwave cavities connected to input-output waveguides. Using a classical drive on the upper transition, we find parameter space where a single photon control pulse incident on one of the cavities can be fully absorbed into hybridized excited states. This subsequently leads to series of quantum jumps in the upper manifold and the appearance of a photon flux leaving the second cavity through a separate input-output port. The proposal does not require time variation of the probe signals, thus corresponding to a passive version of a single-photon transistor. The resulting device is robust to qubit dephasing processes, possesses low dark count rate for large anharmonicity, and can be readily implemented using current technology.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.117.140503

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We propose a microwave frequency single-photon transistor which can operate under continuous wave probing and represents an efficient single microwave photon detector. It can be realized using an impedance matched system of a three level artificial ladder-type atom coupled to two microwave cavities connected to input-output waveguides. Using a classical drive on the upper transition, we find parameter space where a single photon control pulse incident on one of the cavities can be fully absorbed into hybridized excited states. This subsequently leads to series of quantum jumps in the upper manifold and the appearance of a photon flux leaving the second cavity through a separate input-output port. The proposal does not require time variation of the probe signals, thus corresponding to a passive version of a single-photon transistor. The resulting device is robust to qubit dephasing processes, possesses low dark count rate for large anharmonicity, and can be readily implemented using current technology.
We present a scheme for a single-photon transistor which can be implemented with only minor modifications of existing superconducting circuits. The proposal employs a three-level anharmonic ladder atom, e.g., a transmon qubit, placed in a cavity to mimic a $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$-type atom with two long-lived states. This configuration may enable a wide range of effects originally studied in quantum optical systems to be realized in superconducting systems, and in particular allow for single-photon transistors. We study analytically and numerically the efficiency and the gain of the proposed transistor as a function of the experimental parameters, in particular of the level anharmonicity and of the various decay and decoherence rates. State-of-the-art values for these parameters indicate that error probabilities of $\ensuremath{\sim}1%$ and gains of the order of hundreds can be obtained.
Single-photon detection is a requisite technique in quantum-optics experiments in both the optical and the microwave domains. However, the energy of microwave quanta are four to five orders of magnitude less than their optical counterpart, making the efficient detection of single microwave photons extremely challenging. Here we demonstrate the detection of a single microwave photon propagating through a waveguide. The detector is implemented with an impedance-matched artificial Λ system comprising the dressed states of a driven superconducting qubit coupled to a microwave resonator. Each signal photon deterministically induces a Raman transition in the Λ system and excites the qubit. The subsequent dispersive readout of the qubit produces a discrete 'click'. We attain a high single-photon-detection efficiency of 0.66±0.06 with a low dark-count probability of 0.014±0.001 and a reset time of ∼400 ns. This detector can be exploited for various applications in quantum sensing, quantum communication and quantum information processing.
A photonic transistor that can switch or amplify an optical signal with a single gate photon requires strong non-linear interaction at the single-photon level. Circuit quantum electrodynamics provides great flexibility to generate such an interaction, and thus could serve as an effective platform to realize a high-performance single-photon transistor. Here we demonstrate such a photonic transistor in the microwave regime. Our device consists of two microwave cavities dispersively coupled to a superconducting qubit. A single gate photon imprints a phase shift on the qubit state through one cavity, and further shifts the resonance frequency of the other cavity. In this way, we realize a gain of the transistor up to 53.4 dB, with an extinction ratio better than 20 dB. Our device outperforms previous devices in the optical regime by several orders in terms of optical gain, which indicates a great potential for application in the field of microwave quantum photonics and quantum information processing.
We consider the single photon transistor in coupled cavity system of resonators interacting with multilevel superconducting artificial atom simultaneously. Effective single mode transformation is used for the diagonalization of the the hamiltonian and impedance matching in terms of the normal modes. Storage and transmission of the incident field are described by the interactions between the cavities controlling the atomic transitions of lowest lying states. Rabi splitting of vacuum induced multiphoton transitions is considered in input/output relations by the quadrature operators in the absence of the input field. Second order coherence functions are employed to investigate the photon blockade and localization-delocalization transitions of cavity fields in oscillating regime of photon states described by the the population imbalance. Refection and transmission of cavity output fields are investigated in the presence of the multilevel transitions.
Efficient detection of single microwave photons is a key capability for emerging quantum technologies. Yet, it remains far less developed than its optical domain counterpart. Realizing detectors that simultaneously achieve high efficiency, low dark counts, and continuous operation has proved challenging. Existing detectors operate cyclically, forcing a trade-off between efficiency and duty cycle. Here, we demonstrate a continuously operated microwave single-photon detector based on a superconducting artificial molecule. In our scheme, an incoming photon is captured by a bright state of the molecule and then transferred to a long-lived dark state via a driven-dissipative process. Photon ``clicks'' are revealed as quantum jumps in the continuously monitored dark state. We observe a cyclic detection efficiency of 0.730.730.73, and a continuous detection efficiency of 0.470.470.47 over a 5 MHz5\,\mathrm{MHz}5MHz instantaneous bandwidth, with a 1 μs1\,μ\mathrm{s}1μs temporal resolution and a 15 μs15\,μ\mathrm{s}15μs dead time. By overcoming the trade-off between efficiency and duty cycle, this approach establishes continuous microwave photon detection for quantum sensing, quantum thermodynamics, and fundamental physics.
We propose a single-photon transistor scheme based on cavity quantum electrodynamics that employs variable coupling between a resonator and a waveguide. We show that the effective absorption of a single photon of arbitrary shape can be realized through controlled variation of the coupling. Subsequently, with coupling turned off, the absorbed photon would remain inside the resonator, alter the effective frequency of the artificial atom, and enable the controlled resonant transmission of multiple source photons. Moreover, the gate photon can be easily retrieved. Our results provide a promising platform for coherent manipulation and individual microwave photon detection, which has potential applications in quantum information processing and quantum communication.