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arXiv:1703.04495 · Nature Communications

Circuit quantum acoustodynamics with surface acoustic waves

Riccardo Manenti, Anton Frisk Kockum, Andrew D. Patterson, Tanja Behrle, Joseph Rahamim, Giovanna Tancredi, Franco Nori, Peter Leek

Published Oct 11, 2017• 337 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The experimental investigation of quantum devices incorporating mechanical resonators has opened up new frontiers in the study of quantum mechanics at a macroscopic level. It has recently been shown that surface acoustic waves (SAWs) can be piezoelectrically coupled to superconducting qubits, and confined in high-quality Fabry–Perot cavities in the quantum regime. Here we present measurements of a device in which a superconducting qubit is coupled to a SAW cavity, realising a surface acoustic version of cavity quantum electrodynamics. We use measurements of the AC Stark shift between the two systems to determine the coupling strength, which is in agreement with a theoretical model. This quantum acoustodynamics architecture may be used to develop new quantum acoustic devices in which quantum information is stored in trapped on-chip acoustic wavepackets, and manipulated in ways that are impossible with purely electromagnetic signals, due to the 10 5 times slower mechanical waves.

DOI
10.1038/s41467-017-01063-9

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Abstract The experimental investigation of quantum devices incorporating mechanical resonators has opened up new frontiers in the study of quantum mechanics at a macroscopic level. It has recently been shown that surface acoustic waves (SAWs) can be piezoelectrically coupled to superconducting qubits, and confined in high-quality Fabry–Perot cavities in the quantum regime. Here we present measurements of a device in which a superconducting qubit is coupled to a SAW cavity, realising a surface acoustic version of cavity quantum electrodynamics. We use measurements of the AC Stark shift between the two systems to determine the coupling strength, which is in agreement with a theoretical model. This quantum acoustodynamics architecture may be used to develop new quantum acoustic devices in which quantum information is stored in trapped on-chip acoustic wavepackets, and manipulated in ways that are impossible with purely electromagnetic signals, due to the 10 5 times slower mechanical waves.
The past 20 years has seen rapid developments in circuit quantum electrodynamics, where superconducting qubits and resonators are used to control and study quantum light-matter interaction at a fundamental level. The development of this field is strongly influenced by quantum information science and the prospect of realizing quantum computation, but also opens up opportunities for combinations of different physical systems and research areas. Superconducting circuits in the microwave domain offer a versatile platform for interfacing with other quantum systems thanks to strong nonlinearities and zero-point fluctuations, as well as flexibility in design and fabrication. Hybrid quantum systems based on circuit quantum electrodynamics could enable novel functionalities by exploiting the strengths of the individual components.This thesis covers experiments coupling superconducting circuits to surface acoustic waves (SAWs), mechanical waves propagating along the surface of a solid. Strong coupling can be engineered using the piezoelectric properties of GaAs substrates, and our experiments exploit this to investigate phenomena in quantum field-matter interaction. A key property of surface acoustic waves is the slow propagation speed, typically five orders of magnitude slower than light in vacuum, and the associated short wavelength. This enables the giant atom regime where the artificial atom in the form of a superconducting circuit is large compared to the wavelength of interacting SAW radiation, a condition which is difficult to realize in other systems. Experiments described in this thesis use these properties to demonstrate electromagnetically induced transparency for a mechanical mode, as well as non-Markovian interactions between an artificial giant atom and the SAW field. When the SAW field is confined to a resonant cavity, the short wavelength allows multimode spectra suitable for interacting with a frequency comb. We use a multimode SAW resonator to characterize the ensemble of microscopic two-level system defects with a two-tone spectroscopy approach. Finally, we introduce a hybrid superconducting-SAW resonator with applications in quantum information processing in mind. Experiments with this device demonstrate entanglement of SAW modes, and show promising results on the way to engineer cluster states for quantum computation in continuous variables.
We propose a scheme to implement the phonon antibunching and phonon blockade in a circuit quantum acoustodynamical system containing two surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators coupled to a superconducting qubit. In the cases of driving only one SAW resonator and two SAW resonators, we investigate the phonon statistics by numerically calculating the second-order correlation function. It is found that, when only one SAW cavity is resonantly driven, the phonon antibunching effect can be achieved even when the qubit-phonon coupling strength is smaller than the decay rates of acoustic cavities. This result physically originates from the quantum interference between super-Poissonian statistics and Poissonian statistics of phonons. In particular, when the two SAW resonators are simultaneously driven under the mechanical resonant condition, the phonon antibunching effect can be significantly enhanced, which ultimately allows for the generation of a phonon blockade. Moreover, the obtained phonon blockade can be optimized by regulating the intensity ratio of the two SAW driving fields. In addition, we also discuss in detail the effect of system parameters on the phonon statistics. Our work provides an alternative way for manipulating and controlling the nonclassical effects of SAW phonons. It may inspire the engineering of new SAW-based phonon devices and extend their applications in quantum information processing.
Quantum excitations of macroscopic surface acoustic waves (SAWs) have been tailored to control, communicate, and transduce stationary and flying quantum states. However, the limited lifetime of these hybrid quantum systems remains critical obstacles to extend their applications in quantum information processing. Here, we present potentials of thin film aluminum nitride to on-chip integrated phonons with superconducting qubits over previous bulk piezoelectric substrates. We have reported high-quality thin film GHz-SAW resonators with the highest internal quality factor Qi of 4.92×104 in the quantum regime. The internal losses of SAW resonators are systematically investigated by tuning the parameters of sample layout, power, and temperature. Our results manifest that SAWs on piezoelectric films are readily integrated with standard fabrication of Josephson junction quantum circuits and offer excellent acoustic platforms for high-coherence quantum acoustodynamics architectures.
Phononic resonators are becoming increasingly important in quantum information science, both for applications in quantum computing, communication, and sensing as well as in experiments investigating fundamental physics. Here, we study the decoherence of phonons confined in a surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator strongly coupled $(g/2\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\approx}9\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{MHz})$ to a superconducting transmon qubit. By comparing experimental data with numerical solutions to the Markovian master equation, we report a surface phononic energy decay rate of ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{1}/2\ensuremath{\pi}=480\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{kHz}$ and a pure dephasing rate of ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{\ensuremath{\phi}}/2\ensuremath{\pi}=180\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{kHz}$. These rates are in good agreement with the level of decoherence we extract from qubit-assisted spectroscopic measurements of the SAW resonator. We additionally find that the timescales over which coherent driven dynamics and decoherence occur are comparable, highlighting the need to model the composite device as an open quantum system. We discuss possible sources of decoherence in SAW-based quantum acoustic devices and the application of these devices in future quantum acoustic dissipation engineering experiments. The decoherence characterization techniques we employ are broadly applicable for investigating and benchmarking the effects of loss and dephasing on mechanical resonators in the quantum regime.
Thin-film surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices exhibit high quality factors and are promising candidates for quantum transducers, with significant potential for on-chip integration with high-coherence superconducting quantum circuits and optical resonators. However, the experimental demonstration of strong coupling between thin-film SAWs and superconducting qubits in the quantum regime remains a considerable challenge. In this study, we demonstrate strong coupling between a ScAlN thin-film SAW resonator and a high-coherence qubit on the same substrate, where the enhanced qubit coherence was achieved through selective ScAlN etching. Distinct multimode anticrossings are observed in both the qubit and SAW resonator frequency spectra, with extracted coupling strengths closely matching theoretical predictions. Additionally, we investigate qubit decay and the dissipation properties of the SAW resonator in the SAW-qubit hybrid system. Our results confirm the feasibility of integrating thin-film SAW devices with high-coherence superconducting circuits and offer valuable insights for optimizing the performance of such hybrid systems.
Previous demonstrations of quantum acoustic systems have been limited to isolated devices, with limited capability to route phonons and interconnect multi-port acoustic elements for further extension. Here, we demonstrate a scalable architecture for circuit quantum acoustodynamics (cQAD) by integrating superconducting qubits with suspension-free phononic integrated circuits (PnICs). Coherent coupling between tunable transmon qubits and waveguide-integrated phononic cavities, including Fabry-Perot cavities via monolithic integration and microring cavities via flip-chip assembly, has been achieved, producing a pronounced enhancement of phonon emission with a Purcell factor of ~19. These devices represent elementary building blocks for scalable phononic circuits, establishing the foundation for phonon-based quantum information processors and the testbed for novel quantum acoustic phenomena.