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arXiv:2308.07084 · PRX Quantum

Microwave Photon Detection at Parametric Criticality

Kirill Viktorovich Petrovnin, Jiaming Wang, Michael Romanovich Perelshtein, Pertti Juhani Hakonen, Gheorghe Sorin Paraoanu

Published May 24, 2024• 41 citations
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Abstract

The detection of microwave fields at single-photon power levels is a much-sought-after technology, with practical applications in nanoelectronics and quantum information science. Here we demonstrate a simple yet powerful criticality-enhanced method of microwave photon detection by operating a magnetic-field-tunable Kerr Josephson parametric amplifier at the border of a first-order phase transition and close to the critical point. We obtain an efficiency of 73% and a dark-count rate of 167 kHz, corresponding to a responsivity of 1.3 × 10 17 W − 1 and noise-equivalent power of 3.28 zW / Hz . We verify the single-photon operation by extracting the Poissonian statistics of a coherent probe signal. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

DOI
10.1103/prxquantum.5.020342

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The detection of microwave fields at single-photon power levels is a much-sought-after technology, with practical applications in nanoelectronics and quantum information science. Here we demonstrate a simple yet powerful criticality-enhanced method of microwave photon detection by operating a magnetic-field-tunable Kerr Josephson parametric amplifier at the border of a first-order phase transition and close to the critical point. We obtain an efficiency of 73% and a dark-count rate of 167 kHz, corresponding to a responsivity of 1.3 × 10 17 W − 1 and noise-equivalent power of 3.28 zW / Hz . We verify the single-photon operation by extracting the Poissonian statistics of a coherent probe signal. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Single-photon detectors are essential for implementing optical quantum technologies, such as quantum key distribution, and for enhancing optical imaging systems such as lidar, while also playing a crucial role in studying the statistical properties of light. In this work, we show how the underlying photon statistics can be revealed by using a threshold detector, implemented as a Josephson parametric amplifier operating near a first-order phase transition. We describe the detection protocol, which utilizes a series of pumping pulses followed by the observation of activated switching events. The acquired data are analyzed using two binomial tests, and the results are compared to a theoretical model that takes into account the photon statistics of the microwave field, with additional validation provided by computer simulations. We show that these tests provide conclusive evidence for the Poissonian statistics in the case of a coherent state, in agreement with the experimental data. In addition, this method enables us to distinguish between different statistics of the incoming probe field. Our approach is broadly applicable to standard non-photon-number-resolving detectors, offering a practical pathway to characterize photon statistics in quantum microwave and optical systems.
We experimentally demonstrate a microwave photon-multiplication scheme which combines the advantages of a single-photon detector and a power meter by multiplying the incoming photon number by an integer factor. Our first experimental implementation achieves an n = 3 -fold multiplication with 0.69 efficiency in a 116 MHz bandwidth up to an input photon rate of 400 MHz. It loses phase information but does not require any dead time or time binning. We expect an optimized device cascading such multipliers to achieve number-resolving measurement of itinerant photons with low dark count, which would offer new possibilities in a wide range of quantum-sensing and quantum-computing applications. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
The detection of single microwave photons is becoming a cornerstone of fundamental experiments in circuit quantum electrodynamics and quantum sensing. Experiments in cavity quantum electrodynamics, photon-mediated entanglement, dark-matter axion searches and quantum thermodynamics increasingly rely on single-photon sensitivity. Current technologies exploit superconducting devices, including Josephson parametric detectors, and transmon-based non-demolition counters for dark-matter haloscopes. Hybrid double quantum dot-Josephson systems reach interesting levels of efficiency, while current-biased Josephson junctions show potential for near-quantumlimited resolution. Despite impressive progress, challenges remain in reducing dark counts, improving reset speed, and scaling for multiplexed arrays. Continued advances in superconducting materials, qubit coherence, and hybrid semiconductor-superconductor designs promise to extend detection efficiency and bandwidth. These developments are poised to enable the next generation of quantum-enabled experiments, from foundational tests in quantum optics to searches for new physics.
Abstract Josephson junctions, in appropriate configurations, can be excellent candidates for detection of single photons in the microwave frequency band. Such possibility has been recently addressed in the framework of galactic axion detection. Here are reported recent developments in the modelling and simulation of dynamic behaviour of a Josephson junction single microwave photon detector. For a Josephson junction to be enough sensitive, small critical currents and operating temperatures of the order of ten of mK are necessary. Thermal and quantum tunnelling out of the zero-voltage state can also mask the detection process. Axion detection would require dark count rates in the order of 0.001 Hz. It is, therefore, is of paramount importance to identify proper device fabrication parameters and junction operation point.
Single-photon detectors are an essential part of the toolbox of modern quantum optics for implementing quantum technologies and enabling tests of fundamental physics. The low energy of microwave photons, the natural signal path for superconducting quantum devices, makes their detection much harder than for visible light. Despite impressive progress in recent years and the proposal and realization of a number of different detector architectures, the reliable detection of a single itinerant microwave photon remains an open topic. Here, we investigate and simulate a detailed protocol for single-photon multiplication and subsequent amplification and detection. At its heart lies a Josephson-photonics device which uses inelastic Cooper-pair tunneling driven by a dc bias in combination with the energy of an incoming photon to create multiple photons, thus compensating for the low-energy problem. Our analysis provides clear design guidelines for utilizing such devices, which have previously been operated in an amplifier mode with a continuous wave input, for counting photons. Combining a formalism recently developed by Mølmer to describe the full quantum state of in- and outgoing photon pulses with stochastic Schrödinger equations, we can describe the full multiplication and detection protocol and calculate performance parameters, such as detection probabilities and dark count rates. With optimized parameters, a high population of a single output mode can be achieved that can then be easily distinguished from vacuum noise in heterodyne measurements of quadratures with a conventional linear amplifier. Realistic devices with two multiplication stages with multiplication of 161616 reach for an impinging Gaussian pulse of length TTT a detection probability of 84.5%84.5\%84.5% with a dark count rate of 10−3/T10^{-3}/T10−3/T, and promise to outperform competing schemes.
Microwave photon detection is a key technology for low-temperature superconducting electronics and quantum information processing. A promising possibility is to use switching processes in parametric superconducting devices at criticality, which can be triggered by small perturbations. Here we demonstrate the unique sensing properties of the superconducting Kerr parametric resonator when operated in the proximity of the phase transition boundary. We utilize a semiclassical approximation to provide numerical and analytical results for the Heisenberg-Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations that describe the switching mechanism. We show that the probability of switching events is enhanced by probe input states with energies down to single quanta levels.