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Photon-pressure strong coupling between two superconducting circuits

Nature Physics volume 17, pages 85–91 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The radiation-pressure coupling between two harmonic oscillators has been used in optomechanics for breakthrough experiments in the control and detection of mechanical displacement. Used primarily in optomechanics, there have been few reports of exploiting such a type of interaction in other platforms. Here, we engineer two superconducting LC circuits coupled by a strong photon-pressure interaction, a term we use in analogy to the radiation-pressure interaction between light and mechanical objects. The coupling arises from a change in the resonant frequency of one circuit in response to the current flowing in the second. We observe dynamical backaction between the two circuits, photon-pressure-induced transparency and absorption, and enter the strong coupling regime. Furthermore, we observe parametrically amplified thermal current fluctuations in a radiofrequency circuit close to its quantum ground state. Owing to the high design flexibility of superconducting circuits, our approach will enable new experiments with radiofrequency photons and parameter regimes of photon-pressure coupling that are not accessible in other platforms.

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Fig. 1: Two superconducting LC circuits coupled by a photon-pressure interaction.
Fig. 2: Observation of photon-pressure dynamical backaction between two superconducting circuits.
Fig. 3: From PPIT to the parametric strong coupling regime by tuning the SQUID flux bias.
Fig. 4: Observation of photon-pressure-amplified thermal noise of a radiofrequency superconducting circuit.

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Data availability

All data and processing scripts of the results presented in this paper, including those in the Supplementary Information, are available on Zenodo with the identifier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3886216.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M.F. Gely for help with device fabrication and M.D. Jenkins for support with the data acquisition software. This research was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in the Innovational Research Incentives Scheme VIDI, project no. 680-47-526. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant no. 681476-QOMD) and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant no. 732894-HOT.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: D. Bothner, I. C. Rodrigues.

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  1. Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    D. Bothner, I. C. Rodrigues & G. A. Steele

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  1. D. Bothner
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Contributions

D.B. and I.C.R. designed and fabricated the device, performed the measurements and analysed the data. G.A.S. conceived the experiment and supervised the project. D.B. and I.C.R. edited the manuscript with input from G.A.S. All authors discussed the results and the manuscript.

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Correspondence to D. Bothner or G. A. Steele.

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Bothner, D., Rodrigues, I.C. & Steele, G.A. Photon-pressure strong coupling between two superconducting circuits. Nat. Phys. 17, 85–91 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0987-5

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