Quantum dynamics of an electromagnetic mode that cannot contain N photons
Tailoring the quantum dynamics of light
The energy levels of a quantum system are determined by the laws of quantum mechanics and the specifics of the physical setting. Light confined to a cavity has energy levels neatly arranged in a “ladder” of equidistant rungs, each rung corresponding to a fixed number of photons. Bretheau et al. devised a way to limit the dynamics to only the lowest few rungs by coupling the system to a qubit, which shifted the energy of one of the higher rungs. When they then drove the system at a frequency corresponding to the distance between the rungs, only the states lower in energy than the shifted state could participate.
Science, this issue p. 776
Abstract
Electromagnetic modes are instrumental in building quantum machines. In this experiment, we introduce a method to manipulate these modes by effectively controlling their phase space. Preventing access to a single energy level, corresponding to a number of photons N, confined the dynamics of the field to levels 0 to N – 1. Under a resonant drive, the level occupation was found to oscillate in time, similarly to an N-level system. Performing a direct Wigner tomography of the field revealed its nonclassical features, including a Schrödinger cat–like state at half period in the evolution. This fine control of the field in its phase space may enable applications in quantum information and metrology.
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Supplementary Material
Summary
Materials and Methods
Supplementary Text
Figs. S1 to S4
Resources
File (bretheau-sm.pdf)
References and Notes
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Science
Volume 348 | Issue 6236
15 May 2015
15 May 2015
Copyright
Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Received: 29 July 2014
Accepted: 3 April 2015
Published in print: 15 May 2015
Acknowledgments
We thank M. Devoret, Ç. Girit, T. Kontos, Z. Leghtas, V. Manucharyan, M. Mirrahimi, S. Pascazio, the Quantronics Group, J. -M. Raimond, P. Rouchon, S. Dhillon, and J. Viennot. Nanofabrication has been made within the consortium Salle Blanche Paris Centre. This work was supported by the ANR contract ANR-12-JCJC-TIQS and the Qumotel grant Emergences of Ville de Paris. L.B. acknowledges support from Direction Générale de l’Armement.
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- Deterministic generation of multiparticle entanglement by quantum Zeno dynamics, Science, 349, 6254, (1317-1321), (2021)./doi/10.1126/science.aaa0754
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