arXiv:1712.05039 · Physical Review Letters
Inversion of Qubit Energy Levels in Qubit-Oscillator Circuits in the Deep-Strong-Coupling Regime
Fumiki Yoshihara, T. Fuse, Z. Ao, Sahel Ashhab, Kosuke Kakuyanagi, Shiro Saito, T. Aoki, Kazuki Koshino, Kouichi Semba
Abstract
We report on experimentally measured light shifts of superconducting flux qubits deep-strongly coupled to LC oscillators, where the coupling constants are comparable to the qubit and oscillator resonance frequencies. By using two-tone spectroscopy, the energies of the six lowest levels of each circuit are determined. We find huge Lamb shifts that exceed 90% of the bare qubit frequencies and inversions of the qubits' ground and excited states when there are a finite number of photons in the oscillator. Our experimental results agree with theoretical predictions based on the quantum Rabi model.