No Arabic abstract
We develop the theory of a metamaterial composed of an array of discrete quantum absorbers inside a one-dimensional waveguide that implements a high-efficiency microwave photon detector. A basic design consists of a few metastable superconducting nanocircuits spread inside and coupled to a one-dimensional waveguide in a circuit QED setup. The arrival of a {it propagating} quantum microwave field induces an irreversible change in the population of the internal levels of the absorbers, due to a selective absorption of photon excitations. This design is studied using a formal but simple quantum field theory, which allows us to evaluate the single-photon absorption efficiency for one and many absorber setups. As an example, we consider a particular design that combines a coplanar coaxial waveguide with superconducting phase qubits, a natural but not exclusive playground for experimental implementations. This work and a possible experimental realization may stimulate the possible arrival of all-optical quantum information processing with propagating quantum microwaves, where a microwave photodetector could play a key role.
Propagating quantum microwaves have been proposed and successfully implemented to generate entanglement, thereby establishing a promising platform for the realisation of a quantum communication channel. However, the implementation of quantum teleportation with photons in the microwave regime is still absent. At the same time, recent developments in the field show that this key protocol could be feasible with current technology, which would pave the way to boost the field of microwave quantum communication. Here, we discuss the feasibility of a possible implementation of microwave quantum teleportation in a realistic scenario with losses. Furthermore, we propose how to implement quantum repeaters in the microwave regime without using photodetection, a key prerequisite to achieve long distance entanglement distribution.
The ability to control and measure the temperature of propagating microwave modes down to very low temperatures is indispensable for quantum information processing, and may open opportunities for studies of heat transport at the nanoscale, also in the quantum regime. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate primary thermometry of propagating microwaves using a transmon-type superconducting circuit. Our device operates continuously, with a sensitivity down to $4times 10^{-4}$ photons/$sqrt{mbox{Hz}}$ and a bandwidth of 40 MHz. We measure the thermal occupation of the modes of a highly attenuated coaxial cable in a range of 0.001 to 0.4 thermal photons, corresponding to a temperature range from 35 mK to 210 mK at a frequency around 5 GHz. To increase the radiation temperature in a controlled fashion, we either inject calibrated, wideband digital noise, or heat the device and its environment. This thermometry scheme can find applications in benchmarking and characterization of cryogenic microwave setups, temperature measurements in hybrid quantum systems, and quantum thermodynamics.
We study quantum state tomography, entanglement detection, and channel noise reconstruction of propagating quantum microwaves via dual-path methods. The presented schemes make use of the following key elements: propagation channels, beam splitters, linear amplifiers, and field quadrature detectors. Remarkably, our methods are tolerant to the ubiquitous noise added to the signals by phase-insensitive microwave amplifiers. Furthermore, we analyze our techniques with numerical examples and experimental data, and compare them with the scheme developed in Eichler $et$ $al$ (2011 Phys. Rev. Lett. 106 220503; 2011 Phys. Rev. Lett. 107 113601), based on a single path. Our methods provide key toolbox components that may pave the way towards quantum microwave teleportation and communication protocols.
Superconducting circuits are one of the leading quantum platforms for quantum technologies. With growing system complexity, it is of crucial importance to develop scalable circuit models that contain the minimum information required to predict the behaviour of the physical system. Based on microwave engineering methods, divergent and non-divergent Hamiltonian models in circuit quantum electrodynamics have been proposed to explain the dynamics of superconducting quantum networks coupled to infinite-dimensional systems, such as transmission lines and general impedance environments. Here, we study systematically common linear coupling configurations between networks and infinite-dimensional systems. The main result is that the simple Lagrangian models for these configurations present an intrinsic natural length that provides a natural ultraviolet cutoff. This length is due to the unavoidable dressing of the environment modes by the network. In this manner, the coupling parameters between their components correctly manifest their natural decoupling at high frequencies. Furthermore, we show the requirements to correctly separate infinite-dimensional coupled systems in local bases. We also compare our analytical results with other analytical and approximate methods available in the literature. Finally, we propose several applications of these general methods to analog quantum simulation of multi-spin-boson models in non-perturbative coupling regimes.
We propose the implementation of fast resonant gates in circuit quantum electrodynamics for quantum information processing. We show how a suitable utilization of three-level superconducting qubits inside a resonator constitutes a key tool to perform diverse two-qubit resonant gates, improving the operation speed when compared to slower dispersive techniques. To illustrate the benefit of resonant two-qubit gates in circuit QED, we consider the implementation of a two-dimensional cluster state in an array of N x N superconducting qubits by using resonant controlled-phase (CPHASE) and one-qubit gates, where the generation time grows linearly with N. For N=3, and taking into account decoherence mechanisms, a fidelity over 60% for the generation of this cluster state is obtained.