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

Physics

A Bird’s Eye View of Circuit Photons

Sebastian Schmidt

Published Jun 30, 2016• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Microwave photons inside lattices of coupled resonators and superconducting qubits can exhibit surprising matterlike behavior.Realizing such open-system quantum simulators presents an experimental challenge and requires new tools and measurement techniques.Here, we introduce scanning defect microscopy as one such tool and illustrate its use in mapping the normal-mode structure of microwave photons inside a 49-site kagome lattice of coplanar waveguide resonators.Scanning is accomplished by moving a probe equipped with a sapphire tip across the lattice.This locally perturbs resonator frequencies and induces shifts of the lattice resonance frequencies, which we determine by measuring the transmission spectrum.From the magnitude of mode shifts, we can reconstruct photon field amplitudes at each lattice site and thus create spatial images of the photon-lattice normal modes.

DOI
10.1103/physics.9.74

Related papers

Imaging Photon Lattice States by Scanning Defect Microscopy

Devin Underwood, Will Shanks, Andy C. Y. Li +3 more

Microwave photons inside lattices of coupled resonators and superconducting qubits can exhibit surprising matterlike behavior.Realizing such open-system quantum simulators presents an experimental challenge and requires new tools and measurement techniques.Here, we introduce scanning defect microscopy as one such tool and illustrate its use in mapping the normal-mode structure of microwave photons inside a 49-site kagome lattice of coplanar waveguide resonators.Scanning is accomplished by moving a probe equipped with a sapphire tip across the lattice.This locally perturbs resonator frequencies and induces shifts of the lattice resonance frequencies, which we determine by measuring the transmission spectrum.From the magnitude of mode shifts, we can reconstruct photon field amplitudes at each lattice site and thus create spatial images of the photon-lattice normal modes.

arXiv:1510.08428•Physical Review X•Jun 30, 2016•21 citations

Microwave cavity lattices for quantum simulation with photons

Devin Underwood

Historically our understanding of the microscopic world has been impeded by limitations in systems that behave classically. Even today, understanding simple problems in quantum mechanics remains a difficult task both computationally and experimentally. As a means of overcoming these classical limitations, the idea of using a controllable quantum system to simulate a less controllable quantum system has been proposed. This concept is known as quantum simulation and is the origin of the ideas behind quantum computing. In this thesis, experiments have been conducted that address the feasibility of using devices with a circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architecture as a quantum simulator. In a cQED device, a superconducting qubit is capacitively coupled to a superconducting resonator resulting in coherent quantum behavior of the qubit when it interacts with photons inside the resonator. It has been shown theoretically that by forming a lattice of cQED elements, different quantum phases of photons will exist for dierent system parameters. In order to realize such a quantum simulator, the necessary experimental foundation must rst be developed. Here experimental eorts were focused on addressing two primary issues: 1) designing and fabricating low disorder lattices that are readily available to incorporate superconducting qubits, and 2) developing new measurement tools and techniques that can be used to characterize large lattices, and probe the predicted quantum phases within the lattice. Three experiments addressing these issues were performed. In the rst experiment a Kagome lattice of transmission line resonators was designed and fabricated, and a comprehensive study on the effects of random disorder in the lattice demonstrated that disorder was dependent on the resonator geometry. Subsequently a cryogenic 3-axis scanning stage was developed and the operation of the scanning stage was demonstrated in the final two experiments. The rst scanning experiment was conducted on a 49 site Kagome lattice, where a sapphire defect was used to locally perturb each lattice site. This perturbative scanning probe microscopy provided a means to measure the distribution of photon modes throughout the entire lattice. The second scanning experiment was performed on a single transmission line resonator where a transmon qubit was fabricated on a separate substrate, mounted to the tip of the scanning stage and coupled to the resonator. Here the coupling strength of the qubit to the resonator was mapped out demonstrating strong coupling over a wide scanning range, thus indicating the potential for a scanning qubit to be used as a local quantum probe.

•Jan 1, 2015•0 citations

Hyperbolic lattices in circuit quantum electrodynamics

Alicia J. Kollár, Mattias Fitzpatrick, Andrew Houck

Abstract After two decades of development, cavity quantum electrodynamics with superconducting circuits has emerged as a rich platform for quantum computation and simulation. Lattices of coplanar waveguide resonators constitute artificial materials for microwave photons, in which interactions between photons can be incorporateded either through the use of nonlinear resonator materials or through coupling between qubits and resonators. Here we make use of the previously overlooked property that these lattice sites are deformable and permit tight-binding lattices that are unattainable even in solid-state systems. We show that networks of coplanar waveguide resonators can create a class of materials that constitute lattices in an effective hyperbolic space with constant negative curvature. We present numerical simulations of hyperbolic analogues of the kagome lattice that show unusual densities of states in which a macroscopic number of degenerate eigenstates comprise a spectrally isolated flat band. We present a proof-of-principle experimental realization of one such lattice. This paper represents a step towards on-chip quantum simulation of materials science and interacting particles in curved space.

•Jan 1, 2019•251 citations

Propagation of microwave photons along a synthetic dimension

Nathan Lee, Marek Pechal, E. Alex Wollack +3 more

The evenly spaced modes of an electromagnetic resonator are coupled to each other by appropriate time modulation, leading to dynamics analogous to those of particles hopping between different sites of a lattice. This substitution of a real spatial dimension of a lattice with a ``synthetic'' dimension in frequency space greatly reduces the hardware complexity of an analog quantum simulator. Complex control and readout of a highly multimoded structure can thus be accomplished with very few physical control lines. We demonstrate this concept with microwave photons in a superconducting transmission line resonator by modulating the system parameters at frequencies near the resonator's free spectral range and observing propagation of photon wave packets in time domain. The linear propagation dynamics are equivalent to a tight-binding model, which we probe by measuring scattering parameters between frequency sites. We extract an approximate tight-binding dispersion relation for the synthetic lattice and initialize photon wave packets with well-defined quasimomenta and group velocities. As an example application of this platform in simulating a physical system, we demonstrate Bloch oscillations associated with a particle in a periodic potential and subject to a constant external field. The simulated field strongly affects the photon dynamics despite photons having zero charge. Our observation of photon dynamics along a synthetic frequency dimension generalizes immediately to topological photonics and single-photon power levels, and expands the range of physical systems addressable by quantum simulation.

arXiv:1908.10329•Physical Review A•May 4, 2020•22 citations

Circuit-QED Lattice System with Flexible Connectivity and Gapped Flat Bands for Photon-Mediated Spin Models

Kellen O'Brien, Maya Amouzegar, Won Chan Lee +2 more

Quantum spin models are ubiquitous in solid-state physics, but classical simulation of them remains extremely challenging. Experimental testbed systems with a variety of spin-spin interactions and measurement channels are therefore needed. One promising potential route to such testbeds is provided by microwave-photon-mediated interactions between superconducting qubits, where native strong light-matter coupling enables significant interactions even for virtual-photon-mediated processes. In this approach, the spin-model connectivity is set by the photonic mode structure, rather than the spatial structure of the qubit. Lattices of coplanar-waveguide (CPW) resonators have been demonstrated to allow extremely flexible connectivities and can therefore host a huge variety of photon-mediated spin models. However, large-scale CPW lattices with nontrivial band structures have never before been successfully combined with superconducting qubits. Here we present the first such device featuring a quasi-1D CPW lattice with multiple transmon qubits. We demonstrate that superconducting-qubit readout and diagnostic techniques can be generalized to this highly multimode environment and observe the effective qubit-qubit interaction mediated by the bands of the resonator lattice. This device completes the toolkit needed to realize CPW lattices with qubits in one or two Euclidean dimensions, or negatively curved hyperbolic space, and paves the way to driven-dissipative spin models with a large variety of connectivities.

arXiv:2505.05559•PRX Quantum•Dec 5, 2025•0 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
Microwave photons inside lattices of coupled resonators and superconducting qubits can exhibit surprising matterlike behavior.Realizing such open-system quantum simulators presents an experimental challenge and requires new tools and measurement techniques.Here, we introduce scanning defect microscopy as one such tool and illustrate its use in mapping the normal-mode structure of microwave photons inside a 49-site kagome lattice of coplanar waveguide resonators.Scanning is accomplished by moving a probe equipped with a sapphire tip across the lattice.This locally perturbs resonator frequencies and induces shifts of the lattice resonance frequencies, which we determine by measuring the transmission spectrum.From the magnitude of mode shifts, we can reconstruct photon field amplitudes at each lattice site and thus create spatial images of the photon-lattice normal modes.
Microwave photons inside lattices of coupled resonators and superconducting qubits can exhibit surprising matterlike behavior.Realizing such open-system quantum simulators presents an experimental challenge and requires new tools and measurement techniques.Here, we introduce scanning defect microscopy as one such tool and illustrate its use in mapping the normal-mode structure of microwave photons inside a 49-site kagome lattice of coplanar waveguide resonators.Scanning is accomplished by moving a probe equipped with a sapphire tip across the lattice.This locally perturbs resonator frequencies and induces shifts of the lattice resonance frequencies, which we determine by measuring the transmission spectrum.From the magnitude of mode shifts, we can reconstruct photon field amplitudes at each lattice site and thus create spatial images of the photon-lattice normal modes.
Historically our understanding of the microscopic world has been impeded by limitations in systems that behave classically. Even today, understanding simple problems in quantum mechanics remains a difficult task both computationally and experimentally. As a means of overcoming these classical limitations, the idea of using a controllable quantum system to simulate a less controllable quantum system has been proposed. This concept is known as quantum simulation and is the origin of the ideas behind quantum computing. In this thesis, experiments have been conducted that address the feasibility of using devices with a circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architecture as a quantum simulator. In a cQED device, a superconducting qubit is capacitively coupled to a superconducting resonator resulting in coherent quantum behavior of the qubit when it interacts with photons inside the resonator. It has been shown theoretically that by forming a lattice of cQED elements, different quantum phases of photons will exist for dierent system parameters. In order to realize such a quantum simulator, the necessary experimental foundation must rst be developed. Here experimental eorts were focused on addressing two primary issues: 1) designing and fabricating low disorder lattices that are readily available to incorporate superconducting qubits, and 2) developing new measurement tools and techniques that can be used to characterize large lattices, and probe the predicted quantum phases within the lattice. Three experiments addressing these issues were performed. In the rst experiment a Kagome lattice of transmission line resonators was designed and fabricated, and a comprehensive study on the effects of random disorder in the lattice demonstrated that disorder was dependent on the resonator geometry. Subsequently a cryogenic 3-axis scanning stage was developed and the operation of the scanning stage was demonstrated in the final two experiments. The rst scanning experiment was conducted on a 49 site Kagome lattice, where a sapphire defect was used to locally perturb each lattice site. This perturbative scanning probe microscopy provided a means to measure the distribution of photon modes throughout the entire lattice. The second scanning experiment was performed on a single transmission line resonator where a transmon qubit was fabricated on a separate substrate, mounted to the tip of the scanning stage and coupled to the resonator. Here the coupling strength of the qubit to the resonator was mapped out demonstrating strong coupling over a wide scanning range, thus indicating the potential for a scanning qubit to be used as a local quantum probe.
Abstract After two decades of development, cavity quantum electrodynamics with superconducting circuits has emerged as a rich platform for quantum computation and simulation. Lattices of coplanar waveguide resonators constitute artificial materials for microwave photons, in which interactions between photons can be incorporateded either through the use of nonlinear resonator materials or through coupling between qubits and resonators. Here we make use of the previously overlooked property that these lattice sites are deformable and permit tight-binding lattices that are unattainable even in solid-state systems. We show that networks of coplanar waveguide resonators can create a class of materials that constitute lattices in an effective hyperbolic space with constant negative curvature. We present numerical simulations of hyperbolic analogues of the kagome lattice that show unusual densities of states in which a macroscopic number of degenerate eigenstates comprise a spectrally isolated flat band. We present a proof-of-principle experimental realization of one such lattice. This paper represents a step towards on-chip quantum simulation of materials science and interacting particles in curved space.
The evenly spaced modes of an electromagnetic resonator are coupled to each other by appropriate time modulation, leading to dynamics analogous to those of particles hopping between different sites of a lattice. This substitution of a real spatial dimension of a lattice with a ``synthetic'' dimension in frequency space greatly reduces the hardware complexity of an analog quantum simulator. Complex control and readout of a highly multimoded structure can thus be accomplished with very few physical control lines. We demonstrate this concept with microwave photons in a superconducting transmission line resonator by modulating the system parameters at frequencies near the resonator's free spectral range and observing propagation of photon wave packets in time domain. The linear propagation dynamics are equivalent to a tight-binding model, which we probe by measuring scattering parameters between frequency sites. We extract an approximate tight-binding dispersion relation for the synthetic lattice and initialize photon wave packets with well-defined quasimomenta and group velocities. As an example application of this platform in simulating a physical system, we demonstrate Bloch oscillations associated with a particle in a periodic potential and subject to a constant external field. The simulated field strongly affects the photon dynamics despite photons having zero charge. Our observation of photon dynamics along a synthetic frequency dimension generalizes immediately to topological photonics and single-photon power levels, and expands the range of physical systems addressable by quantum simulation.
Quantum spin models are ubiquitous in solid-state physics, but classical simulation of them remains extremely challenging. Experimental testbed systems with a variety of spin-spin interactions and measurement channels are therefore needed. One promising potential route to such testbeds is provided by microwave-photon-mediated interactions between superconducting qubits, where native strong light-matter coupling enables significant interactions even for virtual-photon-mediated processes. In this approach, the spin-model connectivity is set by the photonic mode structure, rather than the spatial structure of the qubit. Lattices of coplanar-waveguide (CPW) resonators have been demonstrated to allow extremely flexible connectivities and can therefore host a huge variety of photon-mediated spin models. However, large-scale CPW lattices with nontrivial band structures have never before been successfully combined with superconducting qubits. Here we present the first such device featuring a quasi-1D CPW lattice with multiple transmon qubits. We demonstrate that superconducting-qubit readout and diagnostic techniques can be generalized to this highly multimode environment and observe the effective qubit-qubit interaction mediated by the bands of the resonator lattice. This device completes the toolkit needed to realize CPW lattices with qubits in one or two Euclidean dimensions, or negatively curved hyperbolic space, and paves the way to driven-dissipative spin models with a large variety of connectivities.
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.