Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2603.05583

In-situ Characterization of Light-Matter Coupling in Multimode Circuit-QED Systems

Kellen O'Brien, Won Chan Lee, Alexandra Behne, Ali Fahimniya, Yu-Xin Wang, Maya Amouzegar, Alexey V. Gorshkov, Alicia J. Kollár

quant-phphysics.atom-phSubmitted Mar 5, 2026• Announced Mar 9, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Multimode cavity-QED systems can be leveraged to explore a wide range of physical phenomena; however, a complex multimode environment makes systematic characterization of light-matter interactions challenging. Here we present a general measurement protocol, applicable to both atomic and synthetic cavity-QED systems, that enables the determination of coupling to individual photonic modes. The method leverages measurements of the AC-Stark and Kerr effects, along with known detuning dependencies, to eliminate the need for single-photon resolution, independent photon-number calibration, or insertion-loss calibration. We demonstrate the method using a superconducting transmon qubit coupled to a one-dimensional microwave resonator lattice. We validate the consistency of the extracted light-matter couplings $g$ determined at multiple qubit detunings, and from the self-Kerr and cross-Kerr shifts for three photon modes, which provide separate measurements of $g$ for each of the three modes.

Related papers

Multimode Strong-Coupling Processes in Circuit QED Lattices

Won Chan Lee, Ali Fahimniya, Kellen O'Brien +5 more

Circuit QED systems provide an ideal platform for exploring the strong-coupling regime of multimode cavity QED. Here we present two new phenomena from multimode strong coupling: a circuit Lagrangian analysis which captures beyond tight-binding effects of strong photon-photon coupling and experimental observation of strong wave-mixing resonances in the qubit response. Our circuit analysis reveals qualitatively new features such as emergent band gaps, lifted degeneracies, broadened flat bands, and frequency-dependent hopping. Within the multimode photon environment, strong qubit-photon coupling in turn gives rise to multiphoton processes involving multiple normal modes. We demonstrate a strong four-wave-mixing process involving excitation of a qubit and simultaneous frequency conversion between modes. Notably, this wave-mixing process is dominated by localized flat-band modes of the photonic lattice, which exhibit the strongest coupling to the transmon qubit.

quant-pharXiv:2605.00983•May 5, 2026•0 citations

Ultrastrong light-matter interaction in a multimode photonic crystal

Andrei Vrajitoarea, Ron Belyansky, Rex Lundgren +3 more

Harnessing the interaction between light and matter at the quantum level has been a central theme in atomic physics and quantum optics, with applications from quantum computation to quantum metrology. Combining complex interactions with photonic synthetic materials provides an opportunity to investigate novel quantum phases and phenomena, establishing interesting connections to condensed matter physics. Here we explore many-body phenomena with a single artificial atom coupled to the many discrete modes of a photonic crystal. This experiment reaches the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime using the circuit quantum electrodynamics paradigm, by galvanically coupling a highly nonlinear fluxonium qubit to a tight-binding lattice of microwave resonators. In this regime, the transport of a single photon becomes a many-body problem, owing to the strong participation of multi-photon bound states arising from interactions that break particle number conservation. Exploiting the effective photon-photon interactions mediated by the qubit, the transport of multiple photons leads to complex multimode dynamics that can be employed for generating a continuous reservoir of strongly-correlated photons, an important resource for quantum networks. This work opens exciting prospects for exploring nonlinear quantum optics at the single-photon level and stabilizing entangled many-body phases of light.

arXiv:2209.14972•Sep 29, 2022•2 citations

Coupling a Superconducting Qubit to a Left-Handed Metamaterial Resonator

S. Indrajeet, H. Wang, M.D. Hutchings +4 more

Metamaterial resonant structures made from arrays of superconducting lumped-circuit elements can exhibit microwave-mode spectra with left-handed dispersion for the standing-wave resonances, resulting in a high density of modes in the same frequency range where superconducting qubits are typically operated, as well as a bandgap at lower frequencies that extends down to dc. Using this regime for multimode circuit quantum electrodynamics, we perform a series of measurements of such a superconducting metamaterial resonator coupled to a flux-tunable transmon qubit. Through microwave measurements of the metamaterial, we observe the coupling of the qubit to each of the modes that it passes through. Using a separate readout resonator, we probe the qubit dispersively and characterize the qubit energy relaxation as a function of frequency, which is strongly affected by the Purcell effect in the presence of the dense mode spectrum. Additionally, we investigate the ac Stark shift of the qubit as the photon number in the various metamaterial modes is varied. Through numerical simulations, we explore designs based on this scheme with enhanced coupling so that the coupling energy between the qubit and the metamaterial modes can exceed the intermode spacing in future devices with achievable circuit parameters. The ability to tailor the dense mode spectrum through the choice of circuit parameters and manipulate the photonic state of the metamaterial through interactions with qubits makes this a promising platform for analog quantum simulation with microwave photons and quantum memories.

arXiv:2007.10932•Physical Review Applied•Dec 10, 2020•21 citations

High-Contrast Qubit Interactions Using Multimode Cavity QED

David C. McKay, Ravi Naik, Philip Reinhold +2 more

We introduce a new multimode cavity QED architecture for superconducting circuits that can be used to implement photonic memories, more efficient Purcell filters, and quantum simulations of photonic materials. We show that qubit interactions mediated by multimode cavities can have exponentially improved contrast for two qubit gates without sacrificing gate speed. Using two qubits coupled via a three-mode cavity system we spectroscopically observe multimode strong couplings up to 102 MHz and demonstrate suppressed interactions off resonance of 10 kHz when the qubits are ≈600 MHz detuned from the cavity resonance. We study Landau-Zener transitions in our multimode systems and demonstrate quasiadiabatic loading of single photons into the multimode cavity in 25 ns. We introduce an adiabatic gate protocol to realize a controlled-Z gate between the qubits in 95 ns and create a Bell state with 94.7% fidelity. This corresponds to an on/off ratio (gate contrast) of 1000.

arXiv:1402.7036•Physical Review Letters•Feb 27, 2015•79 citations

Designing Kerr interactions using multiple superconducting qubit types in a single circuit

Matthew Elliott, Jaewoo Joo, Eran Ginossar

The engineering of Kerr interactions is of great interest for processing quantum information in multipartite quantum systems and for investigating many-body physics in a complex cavity-qubit network. We study how coupling multiple different types of superconducting qubits to the same cavity modes can be used to modify the self- and cross-Kerr effects acting on the cavities and demonstrate that this type of architecture could be of significant benefit for quantum technologies. Using both analytical perturbation theory results and numerical simulations, we first show that coupling two superconducting qubits with opposite anharmonicities to a single cavity enables the effective self-Kerr interaction to be diminished, while retaining the number splitting effect that enables control and measurement of the cavity field. We demonstrate that this reduction of the self-Kerr effect can maintain the fidelity of coherent states and generalised Schrödinger cat states for much longer than typical coherence times in realistic devices. Next, we find that the cross-Kerr interaction between two cavities can be modified by coupling them both to the same pair of qubit devices. When one of the qubits is tunable in frequency, the strength of entangling interactions between the cavities can be varied on demand, forming the basis for logic operations on the two modes. Finally, we discuss the feasibility of producing an array of cavities and qubits where intermediary and on-site qubits can tune the strength of self- and cross-Kerr interactions across the whole system. This architecture could provide a way to engineer interesting many-body Hamiltonians and be a useful platform for quantum simulation in circuit quantum electrodynamics.

arXiv:1709.04026•New Journal of Physics•Oct 10, 2017•18 citations

Seamless High- Q Microwave Cavities for Multimode Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics

Srivatsan Chakram, Andrew Oriani, Ravi Naik +5 more

Multimode cavity quantum electrodynamics-where a two-level system interacts simultaneously with many cavity modes-provides a versatile framework for quantum information processing and quantum optics. Because of the combination of long coherence times and large interaction strengths, one of the leading experimental platforms for cavity QED involves coupling a superconducting circuit to a 3D microwave cavity. In this work, we realize a 3D multimode circuit QED system with single photon lifetimes of 2 ms across 9 modes of a novel seamless cavity. We demonstrate a variety of protocols for universal single-mode quantum control applicable across all cavity modes, using only a single drive line. We achieve this by developing a straightforward flute method for creating monolithic superconducting microwave cavities that reduces loss while simultaneously allowing control of the mode spectrum and mode-qubit interaction. We highlight the flexibility and ease of implementation of this technique by using it to fabricate a variety of 3D cavity geometries, providing a template for engineering multimode quantum systems with exceptionally low dissipation. This work is an important step towards realizing hardware efficient random access quantum memories and processors, and for exploring quantum many-body physics with photons.

arXiv:2010.16382•Physical Review Letters•Aug 31, 2021•77 citations
Multimode cavity-QED systems can be leveraged to explore a wide range of physical phenomena; however, a complex multimode environment makes systematic characterization of light-matter interactions challenging. Here we present a general measurement protocol, applicable to both atomic and synthetic cavity-QED systems, that enables the determination of coupling to individual photonic modes. The method leverages measurements of the AC-Stark and Kerr effects, along with known detuning dependencies, to eliminate the need for single-photon resolution, independent photon-number calibration, or insertion-loss calibration. We demonstrate the method using a superconducting transmon qubit coupled to a one-dimensional microwave resonator lattice. We validate the consistency of the extracted light-matter couplings ggg determined at multiple qubit detunings, and from the self-Kerr and cross-Kerr shifts for three photon modes, which provide separate measurements of ggg for each of the three modes.
Circuit QED systems provide an ideal platform for exploring the strong-coupling regime of multimode cavity QED. Here we present two new phenomena from multimode strong coupling: a circuit Lagrangian analysis which captures beyond tight-binding effects of strong photon-photon coupling and experimental observation of strong wave-mixing resonances in the qubit response. Our circuit analysis reveals qualitatively new features such as emergent band gaps, lifted degeneracies, broadened flat bands, and frequency-dependent hopping. Within the multimode photon environment, strong qubit-photon coupling in turn gives rise to multiphoton processes involving multiple normal modes. We demonstrate a strong four-wave-mixing process involving excitation of a qubit and simultaneous frequency conversion between modes. Notably, this wave-mixing process is dominated by localized flat-band modes of the photonic lattice, which exhibit the strongest coupling to the transmon qubit.
Harnessing the interaction between light and matter at the quantum level has been a central theme in atomic physics and quantum optics, with applications from quantum computation to quantum metrology. Combining complex interactions with photonic synthetic materials provides an opportunity to investigate novel quantum phases and phenomena, establishing interesting connections to condensed matter physics. Here we explore many-body phenomena with a single artificial atom coupled to the many discrete modes of a photonic crystal. This experiment reaches the ultrastrong light-matter coupling regime using the circuit quantum electrodynamics paradigm, by galvanically coupling a highly nonlinear fluxonium qubit to a tight-binding lattice of microwave resonators. In this regime, the transport of a single photon becomes a many-body problem, owing to the strong participation of multi-photon bound states arising from interactions that break particle number conservation. Exploiting the effective photon-photon interactions mediated by the qubit, the transport of multiple photons leads to complex multimode dynamics that can be employed for generating a continuous reservoir of strongly-correlated photons, an important resource for quantum networks. This work opens exciting prospects for exploring nonlinear quantum optics at the single-photon level and stabilizing entangled many-body phases of light.
Metamaterial resonant structures made from arrays of superconducting lumped-circuit elements can exhibit microwave-mode spectra with left-handed dispersion for the standing-wave resonances, resulting in a high density of modes in the same frequency range where superconducting qubits are typically operated, as well as a bandgap at lower frequencies that extends down to dc. Using this regime for multimode circuit quantum electrodynamics, we perform a series of measurements of such a superconducting metamaterial resonator coupled to a flux-tunable transmon qubit. Through microwave measurements of the metamaterial, we observe the coupling of the qubit to each of the modes that it passes through. Using a separate readout resonator, we probe the qubit dispersively and characterize the qubit energy relaxation as a function of frequency, which is strongly affected by the Purcell effect in the presence of the dense mode spectrum. Additionally, we investigate the ac Stark shift of the qubit as the photon number in the various metamaterial modes is varied. Through numerical simulations, we explore designs based on this scheme with enhanced coupling so that the coupling energy between the qubit and the metamaterial modes can exceed the intermode spacing in future devices with achievable circuit parameters. The ability to tailor the dense mode spectrum through the choice of circuit parameters and manipulate the photonic state of the metamaterial through interactions with qubits makes this a promising platform for analog quantum simulation with microwave photons and quantum memories.
We introduce a new multimode cavity QED architecture for superconducting circuits that can be used to implement photonic memories, more efficient Purcell filters, and quantum simulations of photonic materials. We show that qubit interactions mediated by multimode cavities can have exponentially improved contrast for two qubit gates without sacrificing gate speed. Using two qubits coupled via a three-mode cavity system we spectroscopically observe multimode strong couplings up to 102 MHz and demonstrate suppressed interactions off resonance of 10 kHz when the qubits are ≈600 MHz detuned from the cavity resonance. We study Landau-Zener transitions in our multimode systems and demonstrate quasiadiabatic loading of single photons into the multimode cavity in 25 ns. We introduce an adiabatic gate protocol to realize a controlled-Z gate between the qubits in 95 ns and create a Bell state with 94.7% fidelity. This corresponds to an on/off ratio (gate contrast) of 1000.
The engineering of Kerr interactions is of great interest for processing quantum information in multipartite quantum systems and for investigating many-body physics in a complex cavity-qubit network. We study how coupling multiple different types of superconducting qubits to the same cavity modes can be used to modify the self- and cross-Kerr effects acting on the cavities and demonstrate that this type of architecture could be of significant benefit for quantum technologies. Using both analytical perturbation theory results and numerical simulations, we first show that coupling two superconducting qubits with opposite anharmonicities to a single cavity enables the effective self-Kerr interaction to be diminished, while retaining the number splitting effect that enables control and measurement of the cavity field. We demonstrate that this reduction of the self-Kerr effect can maintain the fidelity of coherent states and generalised Schrödinger cat states for much longer than typical coherence times in realistic devices. Next, we find that the cross-Kerr interaction between two cavities can be modified by coupling them both to the same pair of qubit devices. When one of the qubits is tunable in frequency, the strength of entangling interactions between the cavities can be varied on demand, forming the basis for logic operations on the two modes. Finally, we discuss the feasibility of producing an array of cavities and qubits where intermediary and on-site qubits can tune the strength of self- and cross-Kerr interactions across the whole system. This architecture could provide a way to engineer interesting many-body Hamiltonians and be a useful platform for quantum simulation in circuit quantum electrodynamics.
Multimode cavity quantum electrodynamics-where a two-level system interacts simultaneously with many cavity modes-provides a versatile framework for quantum information processing and quantum optics. Because of the combination of long coherence times and large interaction strengths, one of the leading experimental platforms for cavity QED involves coupling a superconducting circuit to a 3D microwave cavity. In this work, we realize a 3D multimode circuit QED system with single photon lifetimes of 2 ms across 9 modes of a novel seamless cavity. We demonstrate a variety of protocols for universal single-mode quantum control applicable across all cavity modes, using only a single drive line. We achieve this by developing a straightforward flute method for creating monolithic superconducting microwave cavities that reduces loss while simultaneously allowing control of the mode spectrum and mode-qubit interaction. We highlight the flexibility and ease of implementation of this technique by using it to fabricate a variety of 3D cavity geometries, providing a template for engineering multimode quantum systems with exceptionally low dissipation. This work is an important step towards realizing hardware efficient random access quantum memories and processors, and for exploring quantum many-body physics with photons.