Spectroscopy and Dispersive Shifts

Guanyu Zhu, David Ferguson, Vladimir Manucharyan +1 more

In circuit QED, protocols for quantum gates and readout of superconducting qubits often rely on the dispersive regime, reached when the qubit-photon detuning $\ensuremath{\Delta}$ is large compared to the mutual coupling strength. For qubits including the Cooper-pair box and transmon, selection rules dramatically restrict the contributions to dispersive level shifts $\ensuremath{\chi}$. By contrast, in the absence of selection rules many virtual transitions contribute to $\ensuremath{\chi}$ and can produce sizable dispersive shifts even at large detuning. We present theory for a generic multilevel qudit capacitively coupled to one or multiple harmonic modes and give general expressions for the effective Hamiltonian in second- and fourth-order perturbation theory. Applying our results to the fluxonium system, we show that the absence of strong selection rules explains the surprisingly large dispersive shifts observed in experiments and leads to the prediction of a two-photon vacuum Rabi splitting. Quantitative predictions from our theory are in good agreement with experimental data over a wide range of magnetic flux and reveal that fourth-order resonances are important for the phase modulation observed in fluxonium spectroscopy.

Frank K. Wilhelm

Mario F. Gely, Gary Alexander Steele, Daniel Bothner

When a two-level system (TLS) is coupled to an electromagnetic resonator, its transition frequency changes in response to the quantum vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, a phenomenon known as the Lamb shift. Remarkably, by replacing the TLS by a harmonic oscillator, normal-mode splitting leads to a quantitatively similar shift, without taking quantum fluctuations into account. In a weakly anharmonic system, lying in between the harmonic oscillator and a TLS, the origins of such shifts can be unclear. An example of this is the dispersive shift of a transmon qubit in circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED). Although often referred to as a Lamb shift, the dispersive shift observed in spectroscopy in circuit QED could contain a significant contribution from normal-mode splitting that is not driven by quantum fluctuations, raising the question: how much of this shift is quantum in origin? Here we treat normal-mode splitting separately from shifts induced by quantum vacuum fluctuations in the Hamiltonian of a weakly anharmonic system, providing a framework for understanding the extent to which observed frequency shifts can be attributed to quantum fluctuations.

Manuel Vogel

Manuel Vogel

Agata Cygan, Adam J. Fleisher, R. Ciuryło +3 more

Abstract Measurements of ultrahigh-fidelity absorption spectra can help validate quantum theory, engineer ultracold chemistry, and remotely sense atmospheres. Recent achievements in cavity-enhanced spectroscopy using either frequency-based dispersion or time-based absorption approaches have set new records for accuracy with uncertainties at the sub-per-mil level. However, laser scanning or susceptibility to nonlinearities limits their ultimate performance. Here we present cavity buildup dispersion spectroscopy (CBDS), probing the CO molecule as an example, in which the dispersive frequency shift of a cavity resonance is encoded in the cavity’s transient response to a phase-locked non-resonant laser excitation. Beating between optical frequencies during buildup exactly localizes detuning from mode center, and thus enables single-shot dispersion measurements. CBDS can yield an accuracy limited by the chosen frequency standard and measurement duration and is currently 50 times less susceptible to detection nonlinearity compared to intensity-based methods. Moreover, CBDS is significantly faster than previous frequency-based cavity-enhanced methods. The generality of CBDS shows promise for improving fundamental research into a variety of light–matter interactions.