We study the dynamics of a nonlinear oscillator near the critical point where period-two vibrations are first excited with the increasing amplitude of parametric driving. Above the threshold, quantum fluctuations induce transitions between the period
-two states over the quasienergy barrier. We find the effective quantum activation energies for such transitions and their scaling with the difference of the driving amplitude from its critical value. We also find the scaling of the fluctuation correlation time with the quantum noise parameters in the critical region near the threshold.
The parametric phase-locked oscillator (PPLO), also known as a parametron, is a resonant circuit in which one of the reactances is periodically modulated. It can detect, amplify, and store binary digital signals in the form of two distinct phases of
self-oscillation. Indeed, digital computers using PPLOs based on a magnetic ferrite ring or a varactor diode as its fundamental logic element were successfully operated in 1950s and 1960s. More recently, basic bit operations have been demonstrated in an electromechanical resonator, and an Ising machine based on optical PPLOs has been proposed. Here, using a PPLO realized with Josephson-junction circuitry, we demonstrate the demodulation of a microwave signal digitally modulated by binary phase-shift keying. Moreover, we apply this demodulation capability to the dispersive readout of a superconducting qubit. This readout scheme enables a fast and latching-type readout, yet requires only a small number of readout photons in the resonator to which the qubit is coupled, thus featuring the combined advantages of several disparate schemes. We have achieved high-fidelity, single-shot, and non-destructive qubit readout with Rabi-oscillation contrast exceeding 90%, limited primarily by the qubits energy relaxation.
By driving a dispersively coupled qubit-resonator system, we realize an impedance-matched $Lambda$ system that has two identical radiative decay rates from the top level and interacts with a semi-infinite waveguide. It has been predicted that a photo
n input from the waveguide deterministically induces a Raman transition in the system and switches its electronic state. We confirm this through microwave response to a continuous probe field, observing near-perfect ($99.7%$) extinction of the reflection and highly efficient ($74%$) frequency down-conversion. These proof-of-principle results lead to deterministic quantum gates between material qubits and microwave photons and open the possibility for scalable quantum networks interconnected with waveguide photons.
We report single-shot readout of a superconducting flux qubit by using a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier (JPA). After optimizing the readout power, gain of the JPA and timing of the data acquisition, we observe the Rabi oscillations with a
contrast of 74% which is mainly limited by the bandwidth of the JPA and the energy relaxation of the qubit. The observation of quantum jumps between the qubit eigenstates under continuous monitoring indicates the nondestructiveness of the readout scheme.
