We report an experimental measurement of Landau-Zener transitions on an individual flux qubit within a multiqubit superconducting chip. The method used isolates a single qubit, tunes its tunneling amplitude $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ into the limit where $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ is much less than both the temperature
T and the decoherence-induced energy level broadening, and forces it to undergo a Landau-Zener transition. We find that the behavior of the qubit agrees to a high degree of accuracy with theoretical predictions for Landau-Zener transition probabilities for a double-well quantum system coupled to a nonMarkovian
1/f magnetic flux noise.
When the drive, which causes the level crossing in a qubit, is slow, the probability
PLZ of the Landau-Zener transition is close to 1. In this regime, which is most promising for applications, the noise due to the coupling to the environment reduces the average
PLZ. At the same time, the survival probability, $1\ensuremath{-}{P}_{LZ}$, which is exponentially small for a slow drive, can be completely dominated by noise-induced correction. Our main message is that the effect of weak classical noise can be captured analytically by treating it as a perturbation in the Schr\"odinger equation. This allows us to study the dependence of the noise-induced correction to
PLZ on the correlation time of the noise. As this correlation time exceeds the bare Landau-Zener transition time, the effect of noise becomes negligible. On the physical level, the mechanism of enhancement of the survival probability can be viewed as an absorption of the ``noise quanta'' across the gap. With characteristic energy of the quantum governed by the noise spectrum, the slower the noise is, the lower the number of quanta for which absorption is allowed energetically is. We consider two conventional realizations of noise: Gaussian noise and telegraph noise.
We investigate multiple photon-assisted Landau–Zener (LZ) transitions in a hybrid circuit quantum electrodynamics device in which each of two interacting transmission-line resonators is coupled to a qubit, and the qubits are driven by periodic driving fields and also coupled to a common phonon mode. The quantum state of the entire composite system is modeled using the multi-D2 Ansatz in combination with the time-dependent Dirac–Frenkel variational principle. Applying a sinusoidal driving field to one of the qubits, this device is an ideal platform to study the photon-assisted LZ transitions by comparing the dynamics of the two qubits. A series of interfering photon-assisted LZ transitions takes place if the photon frequency is much smaller than the driving amplitude. Once the two energy scales are comparable, independent LZ transitions arise and a transition pathway is revealed using an energy diagram. It is found that both adiabatic and nonadiabatic transitions are involved in the dynamics. Used to model environmental effects on the LZ transitions, the common phonon mode coupled to the qubits allows for more available states to facilitate the LZ transitions. An analytical formula is obtained to estimate the short time phonon population and produces results in reasonable agreement with numerical calculations. Equipped with the knowledge of the photon-assisted LZ transitions in the system, we can precisely manipulate the qubit state and successfully generate the qubit dynamics with a square-wave pattern by applying driving fields to both qubits, opening up new venues to manipulate the states of qubits and photons in quantum information devices and quantum computers.