Large-scale quantum information processors or quantum communication networks
will require reliable exchange of information between spatially separated
nodes. The links connecting these nodes can be established using traveling
photons that need to be absorbed at the receiving node with high efficiency.
This is achievable by shaping the temporal profile of the photons and absorbing
them at the receiver by time reversing the emission process. Here, we
demonstrate a scheme for creating shaped microwave photons using a
superconducting transmon-type three-level system coupled to a transmission line
resonator. In a second-order process induced by a modulated microwave drive, we
controllably transfer a single excitation from the third level of the transmon
to the resonator and shape the emitted photon. We reconstruct the density
matrices of the created single-photon states and show that the photons are
antibunched. We also create multipeaked photons with a controlled amplitude and
phase. In contrast to similar existing schemes, the one we present here is
based solely on microwave drives, enabling operation with fixed frequency
transmons