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Broadband squeezed microwaves and amplification with a Josephson travelling-wave parametric amplifier

Nature Physics volume 19, pages 706–713 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Squeezing of the electromagnetic vacuum is an essential metrological technique used to reduce quantum noise in applications spanning gravitational wave detection, biological microscopy and quantum information science. In superconducting circuits, the resonator-based Josephson-junction parametric amplifiers conventionally used to generate squeezed microwaves are constrained by a narrow bandwidth and low dynamic range. Here we develop a dual-pump, broadband Josephson travelling-wave parametric amplifier that combines a phase-sensitive extinction ratio of 56 dB with single-mode squeezing on par with the best resonator-based squeezers. We also demonstrate two-mode squeezing at microwave frequencies with bandwidth in the gigahertz range that is almost two orders of magnitude wider than that of contemporary resonator-based squeezers. Our amplifier is capable of simultaneously creating entangled microwave photon pairs with large frequency separation, with potential applications including high-fidelity qubit readout, quantum illumination and teleportation.

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Fig. 1: Josephson travelling-wave parametric amplifier dispersion-engineered for a bichromatic pump.
Fig. 2: Amplification characteristics.
Fig. 3: Single-mode squeezed vacuum.
Fig. 4: Broadband two-mode squeezed vacuum.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and cognizance of our US Government sponsors who funded the work.

Code availability

The code used for the analyses is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and with the permission of the US Government sponsors who funded the work.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Vignesh for valuable discussions and J. Aumentado at NIST for providing the shot-noise tunnel junction. This research was funded in part by the NTT PHI Laboratory and in part by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) under Air Force contract no. FA8721-05-C-0002. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of ODNI, IARPA or the US Government. A.L.G. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council, through the Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) project no. CE170100009 and Discovery Early Career Research Award project no. DE190100380.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Arne Grimsmo

    Present address: Amazon Web Services Centre for Quantum Computing, Pasadena, CA, USA

  2. Bharath Kannan, Youngkyu Sung & Simon Gustavsson

    Present address: Atlantic Quantum Corp., Cambridge, MA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jack Y. Qiu, Kaidong Peng, Bharath Kannan, Benjamin Lienhard, Youngkyu Sung, Philip Krantz, Terry P. Orlando, Simon Gustavsson, Kevin P. O’Brien & William D. Oliver

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jack Y. Qiu, Kaidong Peng, Bharath Kannan, Benjamin Lienhard, Youngkyu Sung, Terry P. Orlando, Kevin P. O’Brien & William D. Oliver

  3. ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Arne Grimsmo

  4. MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA, USA

    Vladimir Bolkhovsky, Greg Calusine, David Kim, Alex Melville, Bethany M. Niedzielski, Jonilyn Yoder, Mollie E. Schwartz & William D. Oliver

  5. Quantum Nanoelectronics Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Irfan Siddiqi

  6. Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    William D. Oliver

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Contributions

J.Y.Q., K.P.O., I.S. and W.D.O. conceived the experiment. J.Y.Q., K.P.O., S.G. and W.D.O. designed the experimental procedure. J.Y.Q. designed the devices and conducted the measurements with assistance from B.K., B.L., Y.S. and P.K. J.Y.Q. analysed the data with assistance from A.G., K.P.O. and W.D.O. A.G. and K.P. provided theory support. J.Y.Q., T.P.O., K.P.O. and W.D.O. wrote the manuscript. V.B., G.C., D.K., A.M. and B.M.N. performed sample fabrication. J.Y., M.E.S., T.P.O., I.S., S.G., K.P.O. and W.D.O. supervised various aspects of the project. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jack Y. Qiu or William D. Oliver.

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Nature Physics thanks Baleegh Abdo and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary text and discussion, Tables 1–3 and Figs. 1–21.

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Qiu, J.Y., Grimsmo, A., Peng, K. et al. Broadband squeezed microwaves and amplification with a Josephson travelling-wave parametric amplifier. Nat. Phys. 19, 706–713 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01929-w

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