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Nature Communications

Tunable and nonlinearity-enhanced dispersive-plus-dissipative coupling in photon-pressure circuits

Mohamad Kazouini, Janis Peter, Zisu Emily Guo, Benedikt Wilde, Kevin Uhl, D. Koelle, Reinhold Kleiner, Daniel Bothner

Published Mar 24, 2026• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Photon-pressure circuits are the circuit implementation of the cavity optomechanical Hamiltonian and discussed for qubit readout, low-frequency quantum photonics and dark matter axion detection. Due to the enormous design flexibility of superconducting circuits, photon-pressure systems provide fascinating possibilities to explore unusual parameter regimes of the optomechanical Hamiltonian. Here, we report the realization of a photon-pressure platform, in which a GHz circuit interacts with a MHz circuit via a magnetic-flux-tunable combination of dispersive and dissipative photon-pressure. In addition, both coupling rates are considerably enhanced by nonlinearities of the GHz-mode, which leads to the multi-photon coupling rates scaling stronger with the pump photon number n c than the usual $$\sqrt{{n}_{\mathrm{c}}}$$ n c dependence. We demonstrate that interference of the two interaction paths leads to a Fano-like response in photon-pressure induced transparency, and that the dynamical backaction is considerably modified compared to the dispersive case, including a parametric instability caused by a red-detuned pump tone.

DOI
10.1038/s41467-026-70459-3

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The quantum nonlinear regime of optomechanics is reached when nonlinear effects of the radiation pressure interaction are observed at the single-photon level. This requires couplings larger than the mechanical frequency and cavity-damping rate, and is difficult to achieve experimentally. Here we show how to exponentially enhance the single-photon optomechanical coupling strength using only additional linear resources. Our method is based on using a large-amplitude, strongly detuned mechanical parametric drive to amplify mechanical zero-point fluctuations and hence enhance the radiation pressure interaction. It has the further benefit of allowing time-dependent control, enabling pulsed schemes. For a two-cavity optomechanical set-up, we show that our scheme generates photon blockade for experimentally accessible parameters, and even makes the production of photonic states with negative Wigner functions possible. We discuss how our method is an example of a more general strategy for enhancing boson-mediated two-particle interactions and nonlinearities.

arXiv:1509.09238•Nature Communications•Apr 25, 2016•174 citations
Abstract Photon-pressure circuits are the circuit implementation of the cavity optomechanical Hamiltonian and discussed for qubit readout, low-frequency quantum photonics and dark matter axion detection. Due to the enormous design flexibility of superconducting circuits, photon-pressure systems provide fascinating possibilities to explore unusual parameter regimes of the optomechanical Hamiltonian. Here, we report the realization of a photon-pressure platform, in which a GHz circuit interacts with a MHz circuit via a magnetic-flux-tunable combination of dispersive and dissipative photon-pressure. In addition, both coupling rates are considerably enhanced by nonlinearities of the GHz-mode, which leads to the multi-photon coupling rates scaling stronger with the pump photon number n c than the usual nc\sqrt{{n}_{\mathrm{c}}}nc​​ n c dependence. We demonstrate that interference of the two interaction paths leads to a Fano-like response in photon-pressure induced transparency, and that the dynamical backaction is considerably modified compared to the dispersive case, including a parametric instability caused by a red-detuned pump tone.
Photon-pressure circuits are the circuit implementation of the cavity optomechanical Hamiltonian and discussed for qubit readout, low-frequency quantum photonics and dark matter axion detection. Due to the enormous design flexibility of superconducting circuits, photon-pressure systems provide fascinating possibilities to explore unusual parameter regimes of the optomechanical Hamiltonian. Here, we report the realization of a photon-pressure platform, in which a GHz circuit interacts with a MHz circuit via a magnetic-flux-tunable combination of dispersive and dissipative photon-pressure. In addition, both coupling rates are considerably enhanced by nonlinearities of the GHz-mode, which leads to the multi-photon coupling rates scaling stronger with the pump photon number ncn_\mathrm{c}nc​ than the usual nc\sqrt{n_\mathrm{c}}nc​​ dependence. We demonstrate that interference of the two interaction paths leads to a Fano-like response in photon-pressure induced transparency, and that the dynamical backaction is considerably modified compared to the dispersive case, including a parametric instability caused by a red-detuned pump tone.
Photon-pressure coupling between two superconducting circuits is a promising platform for investigating radiation-pressure coupling in distinct parameter regimes and for the development of radio-frequency (RF) quantum photonics and quantum-limited RF sensing. Here, we implement photon-pressure coupling between two superconducting circuits, one of which can be operated as a parametric amplifier. We demonstrate a Kerr-based enhancement of the photon-pressure single-photon coupling rate and an increase of the cooperativity by one order of magnitude in the amplifier regime. In addition, we observe that the intracavity amplification reduces the measurement imprecision of RF signal detection. Last, we demonstrate that RF mode sideband cooling is unexpectedly not limited to the effective amplifier mode temperature arising from quantum noise amplification, which we interpret in the context of nonreciprocal heat transfer between the two circuits. Our results demonstrate how Kerr amplification can be used as resource for enhanced photon-pressure systems and Kerr cavity optomechanics.
Cavity optomechanics represents a flexible platform for the implementation of quantum technologies, useful in particular for the realization of quantum interfaces, quantum sensors and quantum information processing. However, the dispersive, radiation-pressure interaction between the mechanical and the electromagnetic modes is typically very weak, harnessing up to now the demonstration of interesting nonlinear dynamics and quantum control at the single photon level. It has already been shown both theoretically and experimentally that if the interaction is mediated by a Josephson circuit, one can have an effective dynamics corresponding to a huge enhancement of the single-photon optomechanical coupling. Here we analyze in detail this phenomenon in the general case when the cavity mode and the mechanical mode interact via an off-resonant qubit. Using a Schrieffer-Wolff approximation treatment, we determine the regime where this tripartite hybrid system behaves as an effective cavity optomechanical system in the strong coupling regime.
In this thesis, we study two different physical systems, namely superconducting circuits and optomechanical cavities. \nIn the first part of the thesis, we study superconducting qubits and resonators and their potential to implement quantum information processing tasks. We propose a circuit quantum electrodynamics realization of a protocol to generate a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state for transmon qubits homogeneously coupled to a microwave cavity in the dispersive limit. We derive an effective Hamiltonian with pairwise qubit exchange interactions of the XY type that can be globally controlled. Starting from a separable initial state, these interactions allow to generate a multi-qubit GHZ state within a time that does not depend on the number of qubits. We discuss how to probe the non-local nature and the genuine multipartite entanglement of the generated state. Finally, we investigate the stability of the proposed scheme to inhomogeneities in the physical parameters and the weak anharmonicity of transmon qubits. \nIn the second part of the thesis, we study optomechanical systems in which the position of a mechanical resonator modulates the resonance frequency of an optical cavity. The resulting radiation-pressure interaction is intrinsically nonlinear and can be used to implement strong Kerr nonlinearities and an effective interaction between photons. We investigate the optical bistability of such a system. The steady-state mean-field equation of the optical mode is identical to the one for a Kerr medium, and thus we expect it to have the same characteristic behavior with a lower, a middle, and an upper branch. However, the presence of position fluctuations of the mechanical resonator leads to a new feature: the upper branch will become unstable at sufficiently strong driving in certain parameter regimes. We identify the appropriate parameter regime for the upper branch to be stable, and we confirm, by numerical investigation of the quantum steady state, that the mechanical mode indeed acts as a Kerr nonlinearity for the optical mode in the low-temperature limit. This equivalence of the optomechanical system and the Kerr medium will be important for future applications of cavity optomechanics in quantum nonlinear optics and quantum information science. \n
Harmonic oscillators belong to the most fundamental concepts in physics and are central to many current research fields such as circuit QED, cavity optomechanics, and photon pressure systems. Here, we engineer a microwave mode in a superconducting LC circuit that mimics the dynamics of a negative mass oscillator, and couple it via photon pressure to a second low-frequency circuit. We demonstrate that the effective negative mass dynamics lead to an inversion of dynamical backaction and to sideband cooling of the low-frequency circuit by a blue-detuned pump field, which can be intuitively understood by the inverted energy ladder of a negative mass oscillator.
The quantum nonlinear regime of optomechanics is reached when nonlinear effects of the radiation pressure interaction are observed at the single-photon level. This requires couplings larger than the mechanical frequency and cavity-damping rate, and is difficult to achieve experimentally. Here we show how to exponentially enhance the single-photon optomechanical coupling strength using only additional linear resources. Our method is based on using a large-amplitude, strongly detuned mechanical parametric drive to amplify mechanical zero-point fluctuations and hence enhance the radiation pressure interaction. It has the further benefit of allowing time-dependent control, enabling pulsed schemes. For a two-cavity optomechanical set-up, we show that our scheme generates photon blockade for experimentally accessible parameters, and even makes the production of photonic states with negative Wigner functions possible. We discuss how our method is an example of a more general strategy for enhancing boson-mediated two-particle interactions and nonlinearities.