51 research outputs found
Bloch Oscillations in a Josephson Circuit
Bloch oscillations predicted to occur in current-biased single Josephson
junctions have eluded direct observation up to now. Here, we demonstrate
similar Bloch oscillations in a slightly richer Josephson circuit, the
quantronium. The quantronium is a Bloch transistor with two small junctions in
series, defining an island, in parallel with a larger junction. In the ground
state, the microwave impedance of the device is modulated periodically with the
charge on the gate capacitor coupled to the transistor island. When a current
flows across this capacitor, the impedance modulation occurs at the Bloch
frequency, which yields Bloch sidebands in the spectrum of a reflected
continuous microwave signal. We have measured this spectrum, and compared it to
predictions based on a simple model for the circuit. We discuss the interest of
this experiment for metrology and for mesoscopic physics
Structured environments in solid state systems: crossover from Gaussian to non-Gaussian behavior
The variety of noise sources typical of the solid state represents the main
limitation toward the realization of controllable and reliable quantum
nanocircuits, as those allowing quantum computation. Such ``structured
environments'' are characterized by a non-monotonous noise spectrum sometimes
showing resonances at selected frequencies. Here we focus on a prototype
structured environment model: a two-state impurity linearly coupled to a
dissipative harmonic bath. We identify the time scale separating Gaussian and
non-Gaussian dynamical regimes of the Spin-Boson impurity. By using a
path-integral approach we show that a qubit interacting with such a structured
bath may probe the variety of environmental dynamical regimes.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures. Proceedings of the DECONS '06 Conferenc
Typical equilibrium state of an embedded quantum system
We consider an arbitrary quantum system coupled non perturbatively to a large
arbitrary and fully quantum environment. In [G. Ithier and F. Benaych-Georges,
Phys. Rev. A 96, 012108 (2017)] the typicality of the dynamics of such an
embedded quantum system was established for several classes of random
interactions. In other words, the time evolution of its quantum state does not
depend on the microscopic details of the interaction. Focusing at the long time
regime, we use this property to calculate analytically a new partition function
characterizing the stationary state and involving the overlaps between
eigenvectors of a bare and a dressed Hamiltonian. This partition function
provides a new thermodynamical ensemble which includes the microcanonical and
canonical ensembles as particular cases. We check our predictions with
numerical simulations.Comment: 1 figure, 5 pages. This article supersedes the part on the
equilibrium state in arXiv:1510.0435
Quantum critical states and phase transitions in the presence of non equilibrium noise
Quantum critical points are characterized by scale invariant correlations and
correspondingly long ranged entanglement. As such, they present fascinating
examples of quantum states of matter, the study of which has been an important
theme in modern physics. Nevertheless very little is known about the fate of
quantum criticality under non equilibrium conditions. In this paper we
investigate the effect of external noise sources on quantum critical points. It
is natural to expect that noise will have a similar effect to finite
temperature, destroying the subtle correlations underlying the quantum critical
behavior. Surprisingly we find that in many interesting situations the
ubiquitous 1/f noise preserves the critical correlations. The emergent states
show intriguing interplay of intrinsic quantum critical and external noise
driven fluctuations. We demonstrate this general phenomenon with specific
examples in solid state and ultracold atomic systems. Moreover our approach
shows that genuine quantum phase transitions can exist even under non
equilibrium conditions.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure
Single-shot qubit readout in circuit Quantum Electrodynamics
The future development of quantum information using superconducting circuits
requires Josephson qubits [1] with long coherence times combined to a
high-fidelity readout. Major progress in the control of coherence has recently
been achieved using circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architectures [2,
3], where the qubit is embedded in a coplanar waveguide resonator (CPWR) which
both provides a well controlled electromagnetic environment and serves as qubit
readout. In particular a new qubit design, the transmon, yields reproducibly
long coherence times [4, 5]. However, a high-fidelity single-shot readout of
the transmon, highly desirable for running simple quantum algorithms or measur-
ing quantum correlations in multi-qubit experiments, is still lacking. In this
work, we demonstrate a new transmon circuit where the CPWR is turned into a
sample-and-hold detector, namely a Josephson Bifurcation Amplifer (JBA) [6, 7],
which allows both fast measurement and single-shot discrimination of the qubit
states. We report Rabi oscillations with a high visibility of 94% together with
dephasing and relaxation times longer than 0:5 \mu\s. By performing two
subsequent measurements, we also demonstrate that this new readout does not
induce extra qubit relaxation.Comment: 14 pages including 4 figures, preprint forma
Dynamical typicality of embedded quantum systems
We consider the dynamics of an arbitrary quantum system coupled to a large
arbitrary and fully quantum mechanical environment through a random
interaction. We establish analytically and check numerically the typicality of
this dynamics, in other words the fact that the reduced density matrix of the
system has a self-averaging property. This phenomenon, which lies in a
generalized central limit theorem, justifies rigorously averaging procedures
over certain classes of random interactions and can explain the absence of
sensitivity to microscopic details of irreversible processes such as
thermalisation. It provides more generally a new ergodic principle for embedded
quantum systems.Comment: 9 pages. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. A. This article
supersedes the part on "dynamical typicality" in arXiv:1510.0435
Sisyphus cooling and amplification by a superconducting qubit
Laser cooling of the atomic motion paved the way for remarkable achievements
in the fields of quantum optics and atomic physics, including Bose-Einstein
condensation and the trapping of atoms in optical lattices. More recently
superconducting qubits were shown to act as artificial two-level atoms,
displaying Rabi oscillations, Ramsey fringes, and further quantum effects.
Coupling such qubits to resonators brought the superconducting circuits into
the realm of quantum electrodynamics (circuit QED). It opened the perspective
to use superconducting qubits as micro-coolers or to create a population
inversion in the qubit to induce lasing behavior of the resonator. Furthering
these analogies between quantum optical and superconducting systems we
demonstrate here Sisyphus cooling of a low frequency LC oscillator coupled to a
near-resonantly driven superconducting qubit. In the quantum optics setup the
mechanical degrees of freedom of an atom are cooled by laser driving the atom's
electronic degrees of freedom. Here the roles of the two degrees of freedom are
played by the LC circuit and the qubit's levels, respectively. We also
demonstrate the counterpart of the Sisyphus cooling, namely Sisyphus
amplification. Parallel to the experimental demonstration we analyze the system
theoretically and find quantitative agreement, which supports the
interpretation and allows us to estimate system parameters.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Recovering Entanglement by Local Operations
We investigate the phenomenon of bipartite entanglement revivals under purely
local operations in systems subject to local and independent classical noise
sources. We explain this apparent paradox in the physical ensemble description
of the system state by introducing the concept of "hidden" entanglement, which
indicates the amount of entanglement that cannot be exploited due to the lack
of classical information on the system. For this reason this part of
entanglement can be recovered without the action of non-local operations or
back-transfer process. For two noninteracting qubits under a low-frequency
stochastic noise, we show that entanglement can be recovered by local pulses
only. We also discuss how hidden entanglement may provide new insights about
entanglement revivals in non-Markovian dynamics.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure
Strong mechanical driving of a single electron spin
Quantum devices for sensing and computing applications require coherent
quantum systems which can be manipulated in a fast and robust way. Such quantum
control is typically achieved using external electric or magnetic fields which
drive the system's orbital or spin degrees of freedom. However, most of these
approaches require complex and unwieldy antenna or gate structures, and with
few exceptions are limited to the regime of weak driving. Here, we present a
novel approach to strongly and coherently drive a single electron spin in the
solid state using internal strain fields in an integrated quantum device.
Specifically, we study individual Nitrogen-Vacancy (NV) spins embedded in
diamond mechanical oscillators and exploit the intrinsic strain coupling
between spin and oscillator to strongly drive the spins. As hallmarks of the
strong driving regime, we directly observe the energy spectrum of the emerging
phonon-dressed states and employ our strong, continuous driving for enhancement
of the NV spin coherence time. Our results constitute a first step towards
strain-driven, integrated quantum devices and open new perspectives to
investigate unexplored regimes of strongly driven multi-level systems and to
study exotic spin dynamics in hybrid spin-oscillator devices.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from SNI; NCCR QSIT; SNF grants 200021_143697; and EU FP7 grant 611143 (DIADEMS). AN holds a University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society and acknowledges support from the Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from NPG via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphys341
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