Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1605.03420 · Fortschritte der Physik

Time‐resolved statistics of photon pairs in two‐cavity Josephson photonics

Simon Dambach, Björn Kubala, Joachim Ankerhold

Published Dec 5, 2016• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We analyze the creation and emission of pairs of highly nonclassical microwave photons in a setup where a voltage‐biased Josephson junction is connected in series to two electromagnetic oscillators. Tuning the external voltage such that the Josephson frequency equals the sum of the two mode frequencies, each tunneling Cooper pair creates one additional photon in both of the two oscillators. The time‐resolved statistics of photon emission events from the two oscillators is investigated by means of single‐ and cross‐oscillator variants of the second‐order correlation function and the waiting‐time distribution . They provide insight into the strongly correlated quantum dynamics of the two oscillator subsystems and reveal a rich variety of quantum features of light including strong antibunching and the presence of negative values in the Wigner function.

DOI
10.1002/prop.201600061

Related papers

Time-resolved statistics of nonclassical light in Josephson photonics

Simon Dambach, Björn Kubala, Vera Gramich +1 more

The interplay of the tunneling transfer of charges and the emission and absorption of light can be investigated in a setup, where a voltage-biased Josephson junction is connected in series with a microwave cavity. We focus here on the emission processes of photons and analyze the underlying time-dependent statistics using the second-order correlation function ${g}^{(2)}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ and the waiting-time distribution $w(\ensuremath{\tau})$. Both observables highlight the crossover from a coherent light source to a single-photon source. Due to the nonlinearity of the Josephson junction, tunneling Cooper pairs can create a great variety of nonclassical states of light even at weak driving. Analytical results for the weak driving as well as the classical regime are complemented by a numerical treatment for the full nonlinear case. We also address the question of possible relations between ${g}^{(2)}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ and $w(\ensuremath{\tau})$ as well as the specific information which is provided by each of them.

arXiv:1506.05626•Physical Review B•Aug 17, 2015•42 citations

Josephson photonics with a two-mode superconducting circuit

Andrew D. Armour, Björn Kubala, Joachim Ankerhold

We analyze the quantum dynamics of two electromagnetic oscillators coupled in series to a voltage-biased Josephson junction. When the applied voltage leads to a Josephson frequency across the junction which matches the sum of the two mode frequencies, tunneling Cooper pairs excite photons in both modes simultaneously leading to far-from-equilibrium states. These states display highly nonclassical features including strong antibunching, violation of Cauchy-Schwartz inequalities, and number squeezing. We obtain approximate analytic results for both the regimes of low and high photon occupancies which are supported by a full numerical treatment. The impact of asymmetries between the two modes is explored, revealing a pronounced enhancement of number squeezing when the modes are damped at different rates.

arXiv:1503.00545•Physical Review B•May 12, 2015•45 citations

Non-classical light from superconducting resonators coupled to voltage-biased Josephson junctions

Björn Kubala, Vera Gramich, Joachim Ankerhold

The interplay of the tunneling transfer of charges and the emission and absorption of light can be investigated in a set-up, where a voltage-biased Josephson junction is placed in series to a microwave cavity. Here, we concentrate on the emission process and show that due to the inherent nonlinearity of the Josephson junction tunneling Cooper-pairs can create a variety of non-classical states of light. Depending on experimental parameters and tuning the device can be described by effective Hamiltonians, indicating specific photon creation mechanisms which lead to strongly bunched or anti-bunched light emission. We derive explicit analytical expressions for the photon correlation function $g^{(2)}(τ=0)$ for these different processes and investigate their full crossover numerically. Photon distribution functions show squeezing and other interesting non-Poissonian behavior.

arXiv:1404.6259•Physica Scripta•Oct 1, 2015•29 citations

Generating entangled quantum microwaves in a Josephson-photonics device

Simon Dambach, Björn Kubala, Joachim Ankerhold

When connecting a voltage-biased Josephson junction in series to several microwave cavities, a Cooper-pair current across the junction gives rise to a continuous emission of strongly correlated photons into the cavity modes. Tuning the bias voltage to the resonance where a single Cooper pair provides the energy to create an additional photon in each of the cavities, we demonstrate the entangling nature of these creation processes by simple witnesses in terms of experimentally accessible observables. To characterize the entanglement properties of the such created quantum states of light to the fullest possible extent, we then proceed to more elaborate entanglement criteria based on the knowledge of the full density matrix and provide a detailed study of bi- and multipartite entanglement. In particular, we illustrate how due to the relatively simple design of these circuits changes of experimental parameters allow one to access a wide variety of entangled states differing, e.g., in the number of entangled parties or the dimension of state space. Such devices, besides their promising potential to act as a highly versatile source of entangled quantum microwaves, may thus represent an excellent natural testbed for classification and quantification schemes developed in quantum information theory.

arXiv:1609.08990•New Journal of Physics•Jan 31, 2017•24 citations

Nonclassical Photon Pair Production in a Voltage-Biased Josephson Junction

Juha Leppäkangas, Göran Johansson, Michael Marthaler +1 more

We investigate electromagnetic radiation emitted by a small voltage-biased Josephson junction connected to a superconducting transmission line. At frequencies below the well-known emission peak at the Josephson frequency (2eV/h), extra radiation is triggered by quantum fluctuations in the transmission line. For weak tunneling couplings and typical Ohmic transmission lines, the corresponding photon-flux spectrum is symmetric around half the Josephson frequency, indicating that the photons are predominately created in pairs. By establishing an input-output formalism for the microwave field in the transmission line, we give further evidence for this nonclassical photon pair production, demonstrating that it violates the classical Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for two-mode flux cross correlations. In connection to recent experiments, we also consider a stepped transmission line, where resonances increase the signal-to-noise ratio.

arXiv:1210.6276•Physical Review Letters•Jun 28, 2013•55 citations

Emission of Nonclassical Radiation by Inelastic Cooper Pair Tunneling

M. Westig, Björn Kubala, Olivier Parlavecchio +11 more

We show that a properly dc-biased Josephson junction in series with two microwave resonators of different frequencies emits photon pairs in the resonators. By measuring auto- and intercorrelations of the power leaking out of the resonators, we demonstrate two-mode amplitude squeezing below the classical limit. This nonclassical microwave light emission is found to be in quantitative agreement with our theoretical predictions, up to an emission rate of 2 billion photon pairs per second.

arXiv:1703.05009•Physical Review Letters•Sep 26, 2017•57 citations
We analyze the creation and emission of pairs of highly nonclassical microwave photons in a setup where a voltage‐biased Josephson junction is connected in series to two electromagnetic oscillators. Tuning the external voltage such that the Josephson frequency equals the sum of the two mode frequencies, each tunneling Cooper pair creates one additional photon in both of the two oscillators. The time‐resolved statistics of photon emission events from the two oscillators is investigated by means of single‐ and cross‐oscillator variants of the second‐order correlation function and the waiting‐time distribution . They provide insight into the strongly correlated quantum dynamics of the two oscillator subsystems and reveal a rich variety of quantum features of light including strong antibunching and the presence of negative values in the Wigner function.
The interplay of the tunneling transfer of charges and the emission and absorption of light can be investigated in a setup, where a voltage-biased Josephson junction is connected in series with a microwave cavity. We focus here on the emission processes of photons and analyze the underlying time-dependent statistics using the second-order correlation function ${g}^{(2)}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ and the waiting-time distribution $w(\ensuremath{\tau})$. Both observables highlight the crossover from a coherent light source to a single-photon source. Due to the nonlinearity of the Josephson junction, tunneling Cooper pairs can create a great variety of nonclassical states of light even at weak driving. Analytical results for the weak driving as well as the classical regime are complemented by a numerical treatment for the full nonlinear case. We also address the question of possible relations between ${g}^{(2)}(\ensuremath{\tau})$ and $w(\ensuremath{\tau})$ as well as the specific information which is provided by each of them.
We analyze the quantum dynamics of two electromagnetic oscillators coupled in series to a voltage-biased Josephson junction. When the applied voltage leads to a Josephson frequency across the junction which matches the sum of the two mode frequencies, tunneling Cooper pairs excite photons in both modes simultaneously leading to far-from-equilibrium states. These states display highly nonclassical features including strong antibunching, violation of Cauchy-Schwartz inequalities, and number squeezing. We obtain approximate analytic results for both the regimes of low and high photon occupancies which are supported by a full numerical treatment. The impact of asymmetries between the two modes is explored, revealing a pronounced enhancement of number squeezing when the modes are damped at different rates.
The interplay of the tunneling transfer of charges and the emission and absorption of light can be investigated in a set-up, where a voltage-biased Josephson junction is placed in series to a microwave cavity. Here, we concentrate on the emission process and show that due to the inherent nonlinearity of the Josephson junction tunneling Cooper-pairs can create a variety of non-classical states of light. Depending on experimental parameters and tuning the device can be described by effective Hamiltonians, indicating specific photon creation mechanisms which lead to strongly bunched or anti-bunched light emission. We derive explicit analytical expressions for the photon correlation function g(2)(τ=0)g^{(2)}(τ=0)g(2)(τ=0) for these different processes and investigate their full crossover numerically. Photon distribution functions show squeezing and other interesting non-Poissonian behavior.
When connecting a voltage-biased Josephson junction in series to several microwave cavities, a Cooper-pair current across the junction gives rise to a continuous emission of strongly correlated photons into the cavity modes. Tuning the bias voltage to the resonance where a single Cooper pair provides the energy to create an additional photon in each of the cavities, we demonstrate the entangling nature of these creation processes by simple witnesses in terms of experimentally accessible observables. To characterize the entanglement properties of the such created quantum states of light to the fullest possible extent, we then proceed to more elaborate entanglement criteria based on the knowledge of the full density matrix and provide a detailed study of bi- and multipartite entanglement. In particular, we illustrate how due to the relatively simple design of these circuits changes of experimental parameters allow one to access a wide variety of entangled states differing, e.g., in the number of entangled parties or the dimension of state space. Such devices, besides their promising potential to act as a highly versatile source of entangled quantum microwaves, may thus represent an excellent natural testbed for classification and quantification schemes developed in quantum information theory.
We investigate electromagnetic radiation emitted by a small voltage-biased Josephson junction connected to a superconducting transmission line. At frequencies below the well-known emission peak at the Josephson frequency (2eV/h), extra radiation is triggered by quantum fluctuations in the transmission line. For weak tunneling couplings and typical Ohmic transmission lines, the corresponding photon-flux spectrum is symmetric around half the Josephson frequency, indicating that the photons are predominately created in pairs. By establishing an input-output formalism for the microwave field in the transmission line, we give further evidence for this nonclassical photon pair production, demonstrating that it violates the classical Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for two-mode flux cross correlations. In connection to recent experiments, we also consider a stepped transmission line, where resonances increase the signal-to-noise ratio.