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arXiv:2505.16286 · Applied Physics Letters

Microwave engineering of tunable spin interactions with superconducting qubits

Kui Zhao, Ziting Wang, Yu Liu, Gui-Han Liang, Cai-Ping Fang, Yun‐Hao Shi, L. M. Zhang, Jiachi Zhang, Tian-Ming Li, Hao Li, Yueshan Xu, Wei-Guo Ma, Hao-Tian Liu, Jiacheng Song, Zhen-Ting Bao, Yong-Xi Xiao, B. Chen, Cheng-Lin Deng, Zheng-He Liu, Yang He, Si-Yun Zhou, Xiaohui Song, Zhongcheng Xiang, Dongning Zheng, Kaixuan Huang, Kai Xu, Heng Fan

Published Aug 11, 2025• 2 citations
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Abstract

Quantum simulation has emerged as a powerful framework for investigating complex many-body phenomena. A key requirement for emulating these dynamics is the realization of fully controllable quantum systems enabling various spin interactions. Yet, quantum simulators remain constrained in the types of attainable interactions. Here we demonstrate experimental realization of multiple microwave-engineered spin interactions in superconducting quantum circuits. By precisely controlling the native XY interaction and microwave drives, we achieve tunable spin Hamiltonians, including (i) XYZ spin models with continuously adjustable parameters, (ii) transverse-field Ising models, and (iii) Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interacting systems. Our work expands the toolbox for analog-digital quantum simulation, paving the way for exploring a wide range of exotic quantum spin models.

DOI
10.1063/5.0281890

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Quantum simulation has emerged as a powerful framework for investigating complex many-body phenomena. A key requirement for emulating these dynamics is the realization of fully controllable quantum systems enabling various spin interactions. Yet, quantum simulators remain constrained in the types of attainable interactions. Here we demonstrate experimental realization of multiple microwave-engineered spin interactions in superconducting quantum circuits. By precisely controlling the native XY interaction and microwave drives, we achieve tunable spin Hamiltonians, including (i) XYZ spin models with continuously adjustable parameters, (ii) transverse-field Ising models, and (iii) Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interacting systems. Our work expands the toolbox for analog-digital quantum simulation, paving the way for exploring a wide range of exotic quantum spin models.
We propose the implementation of a digital quantum simulator for prototypical spin models in a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture. We consider the feasibility of the quantum simulation of Heisenberg and frustrated Ising models in transmon qubits coupled to coplanar waveguide microwave resonators. Furthermore, we analyze the time evolution of these models and compare the ideal spin dynamics with a realistic version of the proposed quantum simulator. Finally, we discuss the key steps for developing a toolbox of digital quantum simulators in superconducting circuits.
Quantum many-body systems in which time-reversal symmetry is broken give rise to a wealth of exotic phases, and thus constitute one of the frontiers of modern condensed matter physics. Quantum simulation allows us to better understand many-body systems with huge Hilbert space, where classical simulation is usually inefficient. With superconducting quantum circuit as a platform for quantum simulation, we realize synthetic Abelian gauge fields by using microwave drive and tunable coupling in loop configurations to break the time-reversal symmetry of the system. Based on high-precision manipulation and readout of circuit-QED architecture, we demonstrate the chiral ground spin current of a time-reversal symmetry broken system with nontrivial interactions. Our work is a significant attempt to simulate quantum many-body systems with time-reversal symmetry breaking in multi-qubit superconducting processors.
The ability to efficiently simulate a variety of interacting quantum systems on a single device is an overarching goal for digital and analog quantum simulators. In circuit quantum electrodynamical systems, strongly nonlinear superconducting oscillators are typically realized using transmon qubits, featuring a wide range of tunable couplings that are mainly achieved via flux-dependent inductive elements. Such controllability is highly desirable both for digital quantum information processing and for analog quantum simulations of various physical phenomena, such as arbitrary spin-spin interactions. Furthermore, broad tunability facilitates the study of driven-dissipative oscillator dynamics in previously unexplored parameter regimes. In this work, we demonstrate the ability to selectively activate different dynamical regimes between two strongly nonlinear oscillators using parametric modulation. In particular, our scheme enables access to regimes that are dominated by photon-hopping, two-mode squeezing, or cross-Kerr interactions. Finally, we observe level repulsion and attraction between Kerr-nonlinear oscillators in regimes where the nonlinearities exceed the coupling strengths and decay rates of the system. Our results could be used for realizing purely analog quantum simulators to study arbitrary spin systems as well as for exploring strongly nonlinear oscillator dynamics in previously unexplored interaction regimes.
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In the circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture, both the resonance frequency and the coupling of superconducting qubits to microwave field modes can be controlled via external electric and magnetic fields to explore qubit-photon dynamics in a wide parameter range. Here, we experimentally demonstrate and analyze a scheme for tuning the coupling between a transmon qubit and a microwave resonator using a single coherent drive tone. We treat the transmon as a three-level system, with the qubit subspace defined by the ground and the second excited states. If the drive frequency matches the difference between the resonator and the qubit frequencies, a Jaynes-Cummings-type interaction is induced, which is tunable in both amplitude and phase. We show that coupling strengths of about 10 MHz can be achieved in our setup, limited only by the anharmonicity of the transmon qubit. This scheme has been successfully used to generate microwave photons with a controlled temporal shape [M. Pechal et al., Phys. Rev. X 4, 041010 (2014)] and can be directly implemented with superconducting quantum devices featuring larger anharmonicity for higher coupling strengths.
Qubits strongly coupled to a photonic crystal give rise to qubit-photon dressed bound states.These bound states, comprising the qubits and spatially localized photonic modes induced around the qubits, are the basis for many exotic physical scenarios.The localization of these states changes with qubit detuning from the photonic crystal band edge, offering an avenue of in situ control of bound-state interaction.Here, we present experimental results from a device with two transmon qubits coupled to a superconducting microwave photonic crystal and realize tunable on-site and interbound state interactions.We observe a fourth-order two-photon virtual process between bound states indicating strong coupling between the photonic crystal and transmon qubits.Because of their localization-dependent interaction, these states offer the ability to realize one-dimensional chains of bound states with tunable and potentially long-range interactions that preserve the qubits' spatial organization.The widely tunable, strong, and robust interactions demonstrated with this system are promising benchmarks towards realizing larger, more complex systems that use bound states to build and study quantum spin models.