arXiv subjects

Franco Nori

Publications and source records attributed to Franco Nori.

At least 469 records · Page 26Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Entangling superconducting qubits in a multi-cavity system

Important tasks in cavity quantum electrodynamics include the generation and control of quantum states of spatially-separated particles distributed in different cavities. An interesting question in this context is how to prepare entanglement among particles located in different cavities, which are important for large-scale quantum information processing. We here consider a multi-cavity system where cavities are coupled to a superconducting (SC) qubit and each cavity hosts many SC qubits. We show that all intra-cavity SC qubits plus the coupler SC qubit can be prepared in an entangled Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state, by using a single operation and without the need of measurements. The GHZ state is created without exciting the cavity modes; thus greatly suppressing the decoherence caused by the cavity-photon decay and the effect of unwanted inter-cavity crosstalk on the operation. We also introduce two simple methods for entangling the intra-cavity SC qubits in a GHZ state. As an example, our numerical simulations show that it is feasible, with current circuit-QED technology, to prepare high-fidelity GHZ states, for up to nine SC qubits by using SC qubits distributed in two cavities. This proposal can in principle be used to implement a GHZ state for {\it an arbitrary number} of SC qubits distributed in multiple cavities. The proposal is quite general and can be applied to a wide range of physical systems, with the intra-cavity qubits being either atoms, NV centers, quantum dots, or various SC qubits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

Charge Number Dependence of the Dephasing Rates of a Graphene Double Quantum Dot in a Circuit QED Architecture

We use an on-chip superconducting resonator as a sensitive meter to probe the properties of graphene double quantum dots at microwave frequencies. Specifically, we investigate the charge dephasing rates in a circuit quantum electrodynamics architecture. The dephasing rates strongly depend on the number of charges in the dots, and the variation has a period of four charges, over an extended range of charge numbers. Although the exact mechanism of this fourfold periodicity in dephasing rates is an open problem, our observations hint at the fourfold degeneracy expected in graphene from its spin and valley degrees of freedom.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2016

Gate-sensing coherent charge oscillations in a silicon field-effect transistor

Quantum mechanical effects induced by the miniaturization of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology hamper the performance and scalability prospects of field-effect transistors. However, those quantum effects, such as tunnelling and coherence, can be harnessed to use existing CMOS technology for quantum information processing. Here, we report the observation of coherent charge oscillations in a double quantum dot formed in a silicon nanowire transistor detected via its dispersive interaction with a radio-frequency resonant circuit coupled via the gate. Differential capacitance changes at the inter-dot charge transitions allow us to monitor the state of the system in the strong-driving regime where we observe the emergence of Landau-Zener-St{ü}ckelberg-Majorana interference on the phase response of the resonator. A theoretical analysis of the dispersive signal demonstrates that quantum and tunnelling capacitance changes must be included to describe the qubit-resonator interaction. Furthermore, a Fourier analysis of the interference pattern reveals a charge coherence time, $T_2\approx 100$~ps. Our results demonstrate charge coherent control and readout in a simple silicon transistor and open up the possibility to implement charge and spin qubits in existing CMOS technology.

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arXiv2016

Polariton states in circuit QED for electromagnetically induced transparency

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) has been extensively studied in various systems. However, it is not easy to observe in superconducting quantum circuits (SQCs), because the Rabi frequency of the strong controlling field corresponding to EIT is limited by the decay rates of the SQCs. Here, we show that EIT can be achieved by engineering decay rates in a superconducting circuit QED system through a classical driving field on the qubit. Without such a driving field, the superconducting qubit and the cavity field are approximately decoupled in the large detuning regime, and thus the eigenstates of the system are approximately product states of the cavity field and qubit states. However, the driving field can strongly mix these product states and so-called polariton states can be formed. The weights of the states for the qubit and cavity field in the polariton states can be tuned by the driving field, and thus the decay rates of the polariton states can be changed. We choose a three-level system with $Λ$-type transitions in such a driven circuit QED system, and demonstrate how EIT and ATS can be realized in this compound system. We believe that this study will be helpful for EIT experiments using SQCs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

A Single Photon Can Simultaneously Excite Two or More Atoms

We consider two separate atoms interacting with a single-mode optical resonator. When the frequency of the resonator field is twice the atomic transition frequency, we show that there exists a resonant coupling between \textit{one} photon and \textit{two} atoms, via intermediate virtual states connected by counter-rotating processes. If the resonator is prepared in its one-photon state, the photon can be jointly absorbed by the two atoms in their ground state which will both reach their excited state with probability close to one. Like ordinary quantum Rabi oscillations, this process is coherent and reversible, so that two atoms in their excited state will undergo a downward transition jointly emitting a single cavity photon. This joint absorption and emission processes can also occur with three atoms. The parameters used to investigate this process correspond to experimentally demonstrated values in circuit quantum electrodynamics systems.

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arXiv2015

Tunable multiphonon blockade in coupled nanomechanical resonators

A single phonon in a nonlinear nanomechanical resonator (NAMR) can block the excitation of a second phonon [Phys. Rev. A 82, 032101 (2010)]. This intrinsically quantum effect is called phonon blockade, and is an analog of Coulomb blockade and photon blockade. Here we predict tunable multiphonon blockade in coupled nonlinear NAMRs, where nonlinearity is induced by two-level systems (TLSs) assuming dispersive (far off-resonance) interactions. Specifically, we derive an effective Kerr-type interaction in a hybrid system consisting of two nonlinearly-interacting NAMRs coupled to two TLSs and driven by classical fields. The interaction between a given NAMR and a TLS is described by a Jaynes-Cummings-like model. We show that by properly tuning the frequency of the driving fields one can induce various types of phonon blockade, corresponding to the entangled phonon states of either two qubits, qutrit and quartit, or two qudits. Thus, a $k$-phonon Fock state (with $k=1,2,3$) can impede the excitation of more phonons in a given NAMR, which we interpret as a $k$-phonon blockade (or, equivalently, phonon tunneling). Our results can be explained in terms of resonant transitions in the Fock space and via phase-space interference using the $s$-parametrized Cahill-Glauber quasiprobability distributions including the Wigner function. We study the nonclassicality, entanglement, and dimensionality of the blockaded phonon states during both dynamics and in the stationary limits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Increasing relative nonclassicality quantified by standard entanglement potentials by dissipation and unbalanced beam splitting

If a single-mode nonclassical light is combined with the vacuum on a beam splitter, then the output state is entangled. As proposed in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 173602 (2005)], by measuring the output-state entanglement for a balanced lossless beam splitter, one can quantify the input-state nonclassicality. These measures of nonclassicality (referred to as entanglement potentials) can be based, in principle, on various entanglement measures, leading to the negativity (NP) and concurrence (CP) potentials, and the potential for the relative entropy of entanglement (REEP). We search for the maximal nonclassicality, which can be achieved by comparing two entanglement measures for arbitrary two-qubit states and those which can be generated from a photon-number qubit via a balanced lossless beam-splitter, where the qubit basis states are the vacuum and single-photon states. Surprisingly, we find that the maximal nonclassicality, measured by the REEP for a given value of the NP, can be increased (if NP<0.527) by using either a tunable beam splitter or by amplitude damping of the output state of the balanced beam splitter. We also show that the maximal nonclassicality, measured by the NP for a given value of the REEP, can be increased by dephasing. The entanglement itself is not increased by these local losses, but the possible ratios of different measures are affected. Moreover, we show that partially-mixed states can be more nonclassical than both pure states and completely-mixed states, by comparing the NP for a given value of the REEP. This implies that not all entanglement measures can be used as entanglement potentials. Alternatively, a single balanced lossless beam splitter is not always transferring the whole nonclassicality of its input state into the entanglement of its output modes. Applying a lossy beam splitter can solve this problem at least for the cases analyzed in this paper.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Certifying single-system steering for quantum information processing

Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) steering describes how different ensembles of quantum states can be remotely prepared by measuring one particle of an entangled pair. Here, we investigate quantum steering for single quantum d-dimensional systems (qudits) and devise efficient conditions to certify the steerability therein, which are applicable both to single-system steering and EPR steering. In the single-system case our steering conditions enable the unambiguous ruling-out of generic classical means of mimicking steering. Ruling out false-steering scenarios has implications for securing channels against both cloning-based individual attack and coherent attacks when implementing quantum key distribution using qudits. We also show that these steering conditions also have applications in quantum computation, in that they can serve as an efficient criterion for the evaluation of quantum logic gates of arbitrary size. Finally, we describe how the non-local EPR variant of these conditions also function as tools for identifying faithful one-way quantum computation, secure entanglement-based quantum communication, and genuine multipartite EPR steering.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Cavity quantum electrodynamics with ferromagnetic magnons in a small yttrium-iron-garnet sphere

Hybridizing collective spin excitations and a cavity with high cooperativity provides a new research subject in the field of cavity quantum electrodynamics and can also have potential applications to quantum information. Here we report an experimental study of cavity quantum electrodynamics with ferromagnetic magnons in a small yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) sphere at both cryogenic and room temperatures. We observe for the first time a strong coupling of the same cavity mode to both a ferromagnetic-resonance (FMR) mode and a magnetostatic (MS) mode near FMR in the quantum limit. This is achieved at a temperature ~ 22 mK, where the average microwave photon number in the cavity is less than one. At room temperature, we also observe strong coupling of the cavity mode to the FMR mode in the same YIG sphere and find a slight increase of the damping rate of the FMR mode. These observations reveal the extraordinary robustness of the FMR mode against temperature. However, the MS mode becomes unobservable at room temperature in the measured transmission spectrum of the microwave cavity containing the YIG sphere. Our numerical simulations show that this is due to a drastic increase of the damping rate of the MS mode.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Bistable Photon Emission from a Solid-State Single-Atom Laser

We predict a bistability in the photon emission from a solid-state single-atom laser comprising a microwave cavity coupled to a voltage-biased double quantum dot. To demonstrate that the single-atom laser is bistable, we evaluate the photon emission statistics and show that the distribution takes the shape of a tilted ellipse. The switching rates of the bistability can be extracted from the electrical current and the shot noise in the quantum dots. This provides a means to control the photon emission statistics by modulating the electronic transport in the quantum dots. Our prediction is robust against moderate electronic decoherence and dephasing and is important for current efforts to realize single-atom lasers with gate-defined quantum dots as the gain medium.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Hidden Modes in Open Disordered Media: Analytical, Numerical, and Experimental Results

We explore numerically, analytically, and experimentally the relationship between quasi-normal modes (QNMs) and transmission resonance (TR) peaks in the transmission spectrum of one-dimensional (1D) and quasi-1D open disordered systems. It is shown that for weak disorder there exist two types of the eigenstates: ordinary QNMs which are associated with a TR, and hidden QNMs which do not exhibit peaks in transmission or within the sample. The distinctive feature of the hidden modes is that unlike ordinary ones, their lifetimes remain constant in a wide range of the strength of disorder. In this range, the averaged ratio of the number of transmission peaks $N_{\rm res}$ to the number of QNMs $N_{\rm mod}$, $N_{\rm res}/N_{\rm mod}$, is insensitive to the type and degree of disorder and is close to the value $\sqrt{2/5}$, which we derive analytically in the weak-scattering approximation. The physical nature of the hidden modes is illustrated in simple examples with a few scatterers. The analogy between ordinary and hidden QNMs and the segregation of superradiant states and trapped modes is discussed. When the coupling to the environment is tuned by an external edge reflectors, the superradiace transition is reproduced. Hidden modes have been also found in microwave measurements in quasi-1D open disordered samples. The microwave measurements and modal analysis of transmission in the crossover to localization in quasi-1D systems give a ratio of $N_{\rm res}/N_{\rm mod}$ close to $\sqrt{2/5}$. In diffusive quasi-1D samples, however, $N_{\rm res}/N_{\rm mod}$ falls as the effective number of transmission eigenchannels $M$ increases. Once $N_{\rm mod}$ is divided by $M$, however, the ratio $N_{\rm res}/N_{\rm mod}$ is close to the ratio found in 1D.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2015

Giant nonlinearity via breaking parity-time symmetry: a route to low-threshold phonon diodes

Nonreciprocal devices that permit wave transmission in only one direction are indispensible in many fields of science including, e.g., electronics, optics, acoustics, and thermodynamics. Manipulating phonons using such nonreciprocal devices may have a range of applications such as phonon diodes, transistors, switches, etc. One way of achieving nonreciprocal phononic devices is to use materials with strong nonlinear response to phonons. However, it is not easy to obtain the required strong mechanical nonlinearity, especially for few-phonon situations. Here, we present a general mechanism to amplify nonlinearity using $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric structures, and show that an on-chip micro-scale phonon diode can be fabricated using a $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric mechanical system, in which a lossy mechanical-resonator with very weak mechanical nonlinearity is coupled to a mechanical resonator with mechanical gain but no mechanical nonlinearity. When this coupled system transits from the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric regime to the broken-$\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric regime, the mechanical nonlinearity is transferred from the lossy resonator to the one with gain, and the effective nonlinearity of the system is significantly enhanced. This enhanced mechanical nonlinearity is almost lossless because of the gain-loss balance induced by the $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric structure. Such an enhanced lossless mechanical nonlinearity is then used to control the direction of phonon propagation, and can greatly decrease (by over three orders of magnitude) the threshold of the input-field intensity necessary to observe the unidirectional phonon transport. We propose an experimentally realizable lossless low-threshold phonon diode of this type. Our study opens up new perspectives for constructing on-chip few-phonon devices and hybrid phonon-photon components.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Metrology with $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric cavities: Enhanced sensitivity near the $\mathcal{PT}$-phase transition

We propose and analyze a new approach based on parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetric microcavities with balanced gain and loss to enhance the performance of cavity-assisted metrology. We identify the conditions under which $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric microcavities allow to improve sensitivity beyond what is achievable in loss-only systems. We discuss its application to the detection of mechanical motion, and show that the sensitivity is significantly enhanced in the vicinity of the transition point from unbroken- to broken-$\mathcal{PT}$ regimes. We believe that our results open a new direction for $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric physical systems and it may find use in ultra-high precision metrology and sensing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Output Field-Quadrature Measurements and Squeezing in Ultrastrong Cavity-QED

We study the squeezing of output quadratures of an electro-magnetic field escaping from a resonator coupled to a general quantum system with arbitrary interaction strengths. The generalized theoretical analysis of output squeezing proposed here is valid for all the interaction regimes of cavity-quantum electrodynamics: from the weak to the strong, ultrastrong, and deep coupling regimes. For coupling rates comparable or larger then the cavity resonance frequency, the standard input-output theory for optical cavities fails to calculate the correct output field-quadratures and predicts a non-negligible amount of output squeezing, even if the system is in its ground state. Here we show that, for arbitrary interactions and cavity-embedded quantum systems, no squeezing can be found in the output-field quadratures if the system is in its ground state. We also apply the proposed theoretical approach to study the output squeezing produced by: (i) an artificial two-level atom embedded in a coherently-excited cavity; and (ii) a cascade-type three-level system interacting with a cavity field mode. In the latter case the output squeezing arises from the virtual photons of the atom-cavity dressed states. This work extends the possibility of predicting and analyzing continuous-variable optical quantum-state tomography when optical resonators interact very strongly with other quantum systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Multiphoton Quantum Rabi Oscillations in Ultrastrong Cavity QED

When an atom is strongly coupled to a cavity, the two systems can exchange a single photon through a coherent Rabi oscillation. This process enables precise quantum-state engineering and manipulation of atoms and photons in a cavity, which play a central role in quantum information and measurement. Recently, a new regime of cavity QED has been reached experimentally where the strength of the interaction between light and artificial atoms (qubits) becomes comparable to the atomic transition frequency or the resonance frequency of the cavity mode. Here we show that this regime can strongly modify the concept of vacuum Rabi oscillations, enabling multiphoton exchanges between the qubit and the resonator. We find that experimental state-of-the-art circuit- QED systems can undergo two- and three-photon vacuum Rabi oscillations. These anomalous Rabi oscillations can be exploited for the realization of efficient Fock-state sources of light and complex entangled states of qubits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Majorana fermions at the edge of superconducting islands

We investigate the properties of electron states localized at the edge of a superconducting island placed on the surface of a topological insulator in a magnetic field. In such systems, Majorana fermions emerge if an odd number of vortices (or odd multivortex vorticity) is hosted by the island; otherwise, no Majorana states exist. Majorana states emerge in pairs: one state is localized near the vortex core, and another at the island edge. We analyze in detail the robustness of Majorana fermions at the edge of the island threaded by a single vortex. If the system parameters are optimized, the energy gap between the Majorana fermion and the first excited state at the edge is of the order of the superconducting gap induced on the surface of the topological insulator. The stability of the Majorana fermion state against a variation of the gate voltage and its sensitivity to the magnetic field allows one to distinguish experimentally the edge Majorana fermion from conventional Dirac fermions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2015

Generating nonclassical photon-states via longitudinal couplings between superconducting qubits and microwave fields

Besides the conventional transverse couplings between superconducting qubits (SQs) and electromagnetic fields, there are additional longitudinal couplings when the inversion symmetry of the potential energies of the SQs is broken. We study nonclassical-state generation in a SQ which is driven by a classical field and coupled to a single-mode microwave field. We find that the classical field can induce transitions between two energy levels of the SQs, which either generate or annihilate, in a controllable way, different photon numbers of the cavity field. The effective Hamiltonians of these classical-field-assisted multiphoton processes of the single-mode cavity field are very similar to those for cold ions, confined to a coaxial RF-ion trap and driven by a classical field. We show that arbitrary superpositions of Fock states can be more efficiently generated using these controllable multiphoton transitions, in contrast to the single-photon resonant transition when there is only a SQ-field transverse coupling. The experimental feasibility for different SQs is also discussed.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Tunable photon blockade in a hybrid system consisting of an optomechanical device coupled to a two-level system

We study photon blockade and anti-bunching in the cavity of an optomechanical system in which the mechanical resonator is coupled to a two-level system (TLS). In particular, we analyze the effects of the coupling strength (to the mechanical mode), transition frequency, and decay rate of TLS on the photon blockade. The statistical properties of the cavity field are affected by the TLS, because the TLS changes the energy-level structure of the optomechanical system via dressed states formed by the TLS and the mechanical resonator. We find that the photon blockade and tunneling can be significantly changed by the transition frequency of the TLS and the coupling strength between the TLS and the mechanical resonator. Therefore, our study provides a method to tune the photon blockade and tunneling using a controllable TLS.

quant-ph↗