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Microwave photonics with Josephson junction arrays

David Zueco, J. J. Mazo, E. Solano, Juan José García‐Ripoll

Published Oct 6, 2011• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We introduce an architecture for a photonic crystal in the microwave regime based on superconducting transmission lines interrupted by Josephson junctions. A study of the scattering properties of a single junction in the line shows that the junction behaves as a perfect mirror when the photon frequency matches the Josephson plasma frequency. We generalize our calculations to periodic arrangements of junctions, demonstrating that they can be used for tunable band engineering, forming what we call a quantum circuit crystal. As a relevant application, we discuss the creation of stationary entanglement between two superconducting qubits interacting through a disordered media.

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As a typical nonlinear device, Josephson junction (JJ) can be either served as a microwave device to scatter the traveling microwave or embedded in a transmission line (TL) resonator to modify the mode structure. However, two mutually exclusive circuit models have been proposed to describe the JJ embedded in a TL: one is the series embed model [see, e.g., Zueco et al., Phys. Rev. B 86, 024503 (2012)] and another is the parallel embedded one [see, e.g., Yamamoto et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 042510 (2008)]. Here, beginning with the comparison of the theoretical predictions of these two models, we fabricate the JJ-embedded TL device and measure its microwave scattering parameters at 50-mK low temperature. The experimental results support the parallel embedded model, thus rule out the series embedded one. The present work might lay the physical foundation for the designs of various microwave JJ devices, such as the microwave photonic crystals, superconducting qubits, also the Josephson parameter amplifiers, etc., by embedding the JJs into the superconducting TLs.

Applied Physics Letters•May 26, 2025•1 citation
We introduce an architecture for a photonic crystal in the microwave regime based on superconducting transmission lines interrupted by Josephson junctions. A study of the scattering properties of a single junction in the line shows that the junction behaves as a perfect mirror when the photon frequency matches the Josephson plasma frequency. We generalize our calculations to periodic arrangements of junctions, demonstrating that they can be used for tunable band engineering, forming what we call a quantum circuit crystal. As a relevant application, we discuss the creation of stationary entanglement between two superconducting qubits interacting through a disordered media.
We study different architectures for a photonic crystal in the microwave regime based on superconducting transmission lines interrupted by Josephson junctions, both in one and two dimensions. A study of the scattering properties of a single junction in the line shows that the junction behaves as a perfect mirror when the photon frequency matches the Josephson plasma frequency. We generalize our calculations to periodic arrangements of junctions, demonstrating that they can be used for tunable band engineering, forming what we call a quantum circuit crystal. Two applications are discussed in detail. In a two-dimensional structure we demonstrate the phenomenon of negative refraction. We finish by studying the creation of stationary entanglement between two superconducting qubits interacting through a disordered media.
We study the coherent control of microwave photons propagating in a superconducting waveguide consisting of coupled transmission line resonators, each of which is connected to a tunable charge qubit. While these coupled line resonators form an artificial photonic crystal with an engineered photonic band structure, the charge qubits collectively behave as spin waves in the low excitation limit, which modify the band-gap structure to slow and stop the microwave propagation. The conceptual exploration here suggests an electromagnetically controlled quantum device based on the on-chip circuit QED for the coherent manipulation of photons, such as the dynamic creation of laserlike output from the waveguide by pumping the artificial atoms for population inversion.
We consider the propagation of a classical electromagnetic wave through a transmission line, formed by identical superconducting charge qubits inside a superconducting resonator. Since the qubits can be in a coherent superposition of quantum states, we show that such a system demonstrates interesting effects, such as a ``breathing'' photonic crystal with an oscillating band gap and a ``quantum Archimedean screw'' that transports, at an arbitrary controlled velocity, Josephson plasma waves through a transmission line. The key ingredient of these effects is that the optical properties of the Josephson transmission line are controlled by the quantum coherent state of the qubits.
Quantum optics in superconducting circuits, known as circuit QED, studies the interaction of photons at microwave frequencies with artificial atoms made of Josephson junctions. Although quite young, remarkable progress has been made in this field over the past decade, especially given the interest in building a quantum computer using superconducting circuits. In this thesis based on the appended papers, we look at generation, engineering and detection of microwave photons using superconducting circuits. We do this by taking advantage of the strong coupling, on-chip tunability and huge nonlinearity available in superconducting circuits. First, we present the strong photon-photon interaction measured experimentally, as shown in the giant cross-Kerr effect. In this work, conditional phase shift of about 20 degrees per photon was measured between two coherent fields at single photon level. Given this strong interaction, we propose and analyze a cascaded setup based on the cross-Kerr effect to detect itinerant microwave photons, a long outstanding problem with only recent experimental realizations. We show that a nondestructive detection of microwave photons is possible with few cascaded transmons. The on-chip tunability of Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) is exploited to create a tunable superconducting resonator in the next presented experimental work. Finally, we show that by placing the atom at the end of a transmission line, microwave photons can be generated efficiently and on-demand. We also present a setup that can generate the photons in arbitrary wave packets.
As a typical nonlinear device, Josephson junction (JJ) can be either served as a microwave device to scatter the traveling microwave or embedded in a transmission line (TL) resonator to modify the mode structure. However, two mutually exclusive circuit models have been proposed to describe the JJ embedded in a TL: one is the series embed model [see, e.g., Zueco et al., Phys. Rev. B 86, 024503 (2012)] and another is the parallel embedded one [see, e.g., Yamamoto et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 042510 (2008)]. Here, beginning with the comparison of the theoretical predictions of these two models, we fabricate the JJ-embedded TL device and measure its microwave scattering parameters at 50-mK low temperature. The experimental results support the parallel embedded model, thus rule out the series embedded one. The present work might lay the physical foundation for the designs of various microwave JJ devices, such as the microwave photonic crystals, superconducting qubits, also the Josephson parameter amplifiers, etc., by embedding the JJs into the superconducting TLs.