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arXiv:2603.27610

Resonant excitation of single and coupled qubits for coherent quantum control and microwave detection

O. A. Ilinskaya, S. N. Shevchenko

quant-phcond-mat.mes-hallSubmitted Mar 29, 2026• Announced Mar 31, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

Resonant driving enables coherent control of quantum systems, including single and coupled qubits. From a complementary perspective, transitions of a quantum system can be exploited for the detection of microwave photons. In this work, we theoretically investigate resonant multiphoton excitations in a system of qubits. When the energy of K photons matches the energy splitting of the qubit system, the absorption of these photons leads to collective excitation of the qubits. We focus on the case of two coupled qubits and analyze the quantum dynamics of both excitation and relacation processes. In the particular case where only a single qubit is relevant and the remaining qubits can be neglected, the dynamics admits an analytical treatment. We examine multiphoton resonances, the Bloch-Siegert shift, and population inversion, phenomena that are central to both coherent quantum control and microwave photon detection.

Comments
10 pages, 5 figures

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Resonant driving enables coherent control of quantum systems, including single and coupled qubits. From a complementary perspective, transitions of a quantum system can be exploited for the detection of microwave photons. In this work, we theoretically investigate resonant multiphoton excitations in a system of qubits. When the energy of K photons matches the energy splitting of the qubit system, the absorption of these photons leads to collective excitation of the qubits. We focus on the case of two coupled qubits and analyze the quantum dynamics of both excitation and relacation processes. In the particular case where only a single qubit is relevant and the remaining qubits can be neglected, the dynamics admits an analytical treatment. We examine multiphoton resonances, the Bloch-Siegert shift, and population inversion, phenomena that are central to both coherent quantum control and microwave photon detection.
Resonant driving enables coherent control of quantum systems, including single and coupled qubits. From a complementary perspective, transitions of a quantum system can be exploited for the detection of microwave photons. In this work, we theoretically investigate resonant multiphoton excitations in a system of qubits. When the energy of K photons matches the energy splitting of the qubit system, the absorption of these photons leads to collective excitation of the qubits. We focus on the case of two coupled qubits and analyze the quantum dynamics of both excitation and relaxation processes. In the particular case where only a single qubit is relevant, and the remaining qubits can be neglected, the dynamics admits analytical treatment. We examine multiphoton resonances, the Bloch–Siegert shift, and population inversion, phenomena that are central to both coherent quantum control and microwave photon detection.
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.
Two basic physical models, a two-level system and a harmonic oscillator, are realized on the mesoscopic scale as coupled qubit and resonator. The realistic system includes moreover the electronics for controlling the distance between the qubit energy levels and their populations and to read out the resonator’s state, as well as the unavoidable dissipative environment. Such rich system is interesting both for the study of fundamental quantum phenomena on the mesoscopic scale and as a promising system for future electronic devices. We present recent results for the driven superconducting qubit–resonator system, where the resonator can be realized as an LC circuit or a nanomechanical resonator. Most of the results can be described by the semiclassical theory, where a qubit is treated as a quantum two-level system coupled to the classical driving field and the classical resonator. Application of this theory allows to describe many phenomena for the single and two coupled superconducting qubits, among which are the following: the equilibrium-state and weak-driving spectroscopy, Sisyphus damping and amplification, Landau–Zener–Stückelberg interferometry, the multiphoton transitions of both direct and ladder-type character, and creation of the inverse population for lasing.
Single photon detection is a key resource for sensing at the quantum limit and the enabling technology for measurement-based quantum computing.Photon detection at optical frequencies relies on irreversible photoassisted ionization of various natural materials.However, microwave photons have energies 5 orders of magnitude lower than optical photons, and are therefore ineffective at triggering measurable phenomena at macroscopic scales.Here, we report the observation of a new type of interaction between a single twolevel system (qubit) and a microwave resonator.These two quantum systems do not interact coherently; instead, they share a common dissipative mechanism to a cold bath: the qubit irreversibly switches to its excited state if and only if a photon enters the resonator.We have used this highly correlated dissipation mechanism to detect itinerant photons impinging on the resonator.This scheme does not require any prior knowledge of the photon waveform nor its arrival time, and dominant decoherence mechanisms do not trigger spurious detection events (dark counts).We demonstrate a detection efficiency of 58% and a record low dark count rate of 1.4 per millisecond.This work establishes engineered nonlinear dissipation as a key enabling resource for a new class of low-noise nonlinear microwave detectors.
By properly driving a qubit-resonator system in the strong dispersive regime, we implement an ``impedance-matched'' $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ system in the dressed states, where a resonant single photon deterministically induces a Raman transition and excites the qubit. Combining this effect and a fast dispersive readout of the qubit, we realize a detector of itinerant microwave photons. We theoretically analyze the single-photon response of the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ system and evaluate its performance as a detector. We achieve a high detection efficiency without relying on precise temporal control of the input pulse shape and under a conservative estimate of the system parameters. The detector can also be reset quickly by applying microwave pulses, which allows a short dead time and a high repetition rate.
Two basic physical models, a two-level system and a harmonic oscillator, are realized on the mesoscopic \nscale as coupled qubit and resonator. The realistic system includes moreover the electronics for controlling the \ndistance between the qubit energy levels and their populations and to read out the resonator's state, as well as the \nunavoidable dissipative environment. Such rich system is interesting both for the study of fundamental quantum \nphenomena on the mesoscopic scale and as a promising system for future electronic devices. We present recent \nresults for the driven superconducting qubit–resonator system, where the resonator can be realized as an LC \ncircuit or a nanomechanical resonator. Most of the results can be described by the semiclassical theory, where a \nqubit is treated as a quantum two-level system coupled to the classical driving field and the classical resonator. \nApplication of this theory allows to describe many phenomena for the single and two coupled superconducting \nqubits, among which are the following: the equilibrium-state and weak-driving spectroscopy, Sisyphus damping \nand amplification, Landau–Zener–Stückelberg interferometry, the multiphoton transitions of both direct and ladder-type \ncharacter, and creation of the inverse population for lasing.