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arXiv:2203.12058 · Science Advances

Parametrically enhanced interactions and nonreciprocal bath dynamics in a photon-pressure Kerr amplifier

Ines Corveira Rodrigues, Gary Alexander Steele, Daniel Bothner

Published Aug 26, 2022• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Photon-pressure coupling between two superconducting circuits is a promising platform for investigating radiation-pressure coupling in distinct parameter regimes and for the development of radio-frequency (RF) quantum photonics and quantum-limited RF sensing. Here, we implement photon-pressure coupling between two superconducting circuits, one of which can be operated as a parametric amplifier. We demonstrate a Kerr-based enhancement of the photon-pressure single-photon coupling rate and an increase of the cooperativity by one order of magnitude in the amplifier regime. In addition, we observe that the intracavity amplification reduces the measurement imprecision of RF signal detection. Last, we demonstrate that RF mode sideband cooling is unexpectedly not limited to the effective amplifier mode temperature arising from quantum noise amplification, which we interpret in the context of nonreciprocal heat transfer between the two circuits. Our results demonstrate how Kerr amplification can be used as resource for enhanced photon-pressure systems and Kerr cavity optomechanics.

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.abq1690

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Photon-pressure coupling between two superconducting circuits is a promising platform for investigating radiation-pressure coupling in distinct parameter regimes and for the development of radio-frequency (RF) quantum photonics and quantum-limited RF sensing. Here, we implement photon-pressure coupling between two superconducting circuits, one of which can be operated as a parametric amplifier. We demonstrate a Kerr-based enhancement of the photon-pressure single-photon coupling rate and an increase of the cooperativity by one order of magnitude in the amplifier regime. In addition, we observe that the intracavity amplification reduces the measurement imprecision of RF signal detection. Last, we demonstrate that RF mode sideband cooling is unexpectedly not limited to the effective amplifier mode temperature arising from quantum noise amplification, which we interpret in the context of nonreciprocal heat transfer between the two circuits. Our results demonstrate how Kerr amplification can be used as resource for enhanced photon-pressure systems and Kerr cavity optomechanics.
Quantum control over a physical system requires thermal fluctuations and thermal decoherence to be negligible, which becomes more challenging with decreasing natural frequencies of the target system. For microwave circuits, the quantum regime can be reached simply by cooling them to mK temperatures. Radio-frequency (RF) systems in the MHz regime, however, require further cooling or have to be coupled to an auxiliary quantum system with a coupling rate exceeding their thermal decoherence rate. A powerful tool to cool below the thermodynamic bath temperature is sideband-cooling, a technique that originated from the field of trapped ions and cold atoms and that has been applied in cavity optomechanics for groundstate cooling of mechanical motion. Here, we engineer a system of two superconducting LC circuits coupled by a current-mediated photon-pressure interaction and demonstrate sideband-cooling of a hot RF circuit using a microwave cavity and the regime of quantum-coherent coupling between the circuits. Due to a dramatically increased coupling strength, we obtain a large single-photon quantum cooperativity Cq0∼1\mathcal{C}_{\mathrm{q}0} \sim 1Cq0​∼1 and reduce the residual thermal RF occupancy by 75% through sideband-cooling with less than a single pump photon. For larger pump powers, the photon-pressure coupling rate exceeds the RF thermal decoherence rate by a factor of three and the RF circuit is cooled into the quantum groundstate. Our results demonstrate photon-pressure coupling with a hot radio-frequency circuit in the quantum regime and lay the foundation for radio-frequency quantum photonics.
Photon-pressure circuits are the circuit implementation of the cavity optomechanical Hamiltonian and discussed for qubit readout, low-frequency quantum photonics and dark matter axion detection. Due to the enormous design flexibility of superconducting circuits, photon-pressure systems provide fascinating possibilities to explore unusual parameter regimes of the optomechanical Hamiltonian. Here, we report the realization of a photon-pressure platform, in which a GHz circuit interacts with a MHz circuit via a magnetic-flux-tunable combination of dispersive and dissipative photon-pressure. In addition, both coupling rates are considerably enhanced by nonlinearities of the GHz-mode, which leads to the multi-photon coupling rates scaling stronger with the pump photon number ncn_\mathrm{c}nc​ than the usual nc\sqrt{n_\mathrm{c}}nc​​ dependence. We demonstrate that interference of the two interaction paths leads to a Fano-like response in photon-pressure induced transparency, and that the dynamical backaction is considerably modified compared to the dispersive case, including a parametric instability caused by a red-detuned pump tone.
Abstract Photon-pressure circuits are the circuit implementation of the cavity optomechanical Hamiltonian and discussed for qubit readout, low-frequency quantum photonics and dark matter axion detection. Due to the enormous design flexibility of superconducting circuits, photon-pressure systems provide fascinating possibilities to explore unusual parameter regimes of the optomechanical Hamiltonian. Here, we report the realization of a photon-pressure platform, in which a GHz circuit interacts with a MHz circuit via a magnetic-flux-tunable combination of dispersive and dissipative photon-pressure. In addition, both coupling rates are considerably enhanced by nonlinearities of the GHz-mode, which leads to the multi-photon coupling rates scaling stronger with the pump photon number n c than the usual nc\sqrt{{n}_{\mathrm{c}}}nc​​ n c dependence. We demonstrate that interference of the two interaction paths leads to a Fano-like response in photon-pressure induced transparency, and that the dynamical backaction is considerably modified compared to the dispersive case, including a parametric instability caused by a red-detuned pump tone.
Parametric amplification is essential for quantum measurement, enabling the amplification of weak microwave signals with minimal added noise. While Josephson-junction-based amplifiers have become standard in superconducting quantum circuits, their magnetic sensitivity, limited saturation power, and sub-kelvin operating requirements motivate the development of alternative nonlinear platforms. Here we demonstrate a two-mode kinetic-inductance parametric amplifier based on a pair of capacitively coupled Kerr-nonlinear resonators fabricated from NbTiN and NbN thin films. The distributed Kerr nonlinearity of these materials enables nondegenerate four-wave-mixing amplification with gains approaching 40 dB, gain-bandwidth products up to 6.9 MHz, and 1-dB compression powers two to three orders of magnitude higher than those of state-of-the-art Josephson amplifiers. A coupled-mode theoretical model accurately captures the pump-induced modification of the hybridized modes and quantitatively reproduces the observed signal and idler responses. The NbN device exhibits a significantly larger Kerr coefficient and superior gain-bandwidth performance, highlighting the advantages of high-kinetic-inductance materials. Our results establish coupled kinetic-inductance resonators as a robust platform for broadband, high-power, and magnetically resilient quantum-limited amplification, offering a scalable route for advanced readout in superconducting qubits, spin ensembles, quantum dots, and other microwave-quantum technologies.
This thesis explores the coupling of microwave cavities containing a Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID) to a mechanical resonator by means of a flux-mediated optomechanical coupling scheme, and to a Radio-Frequency (RF) circuit via a photon-pressure interaction. While flux-mediated optomechanical systems open the door for the exploration of optomechanical single-photon effects, ultimately allowing for the generation of non-classical states in mechanical oscillators and for the creation of optomechanical qubits, the realization of photon-pressure systems brings rich possibilities for quantum-limited sensing and quantum signal processing, representing a first step towards radio-frequency quantum photonics. Besides presenting the experimental work done with the systems described above, this thesis also provides a theoretical description of their working principle, details on their fabrication, and insights on maximizing their single-photon coupling strengths as well as an overview of the experimental challenges associated with SQUID cavities.
We investigate the nonlinear interaction between a squeezed cavity mode and a mechanical mode in an optomechanical system (OMS) that allows us to selectively obtain either a radiation-pressure coupling or a parametric-amplification process. The squeezing of the cavity mode can enhance the interaction strength into the single-photon strong-coupling regime, even when the OMS is originally in the weak-coupling regime. Moreover, the noise of the squeezed mode can be suppressed completely by introducing a broadband-squeezed vacuum environment that is phase matched with the parametric amplification that squeezes the cavity mode. This proposal offers an alternative approach to control the OMS using a squeezed cavity mode, which should allow single-photon quantum processes to be implemented with currently available optomechanical technology. Potential applications range from engineering single-photon sources to nonclassical phonon states.