Generation of nonclassical microwave states using an artificial atom in 1D open space

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how an artificial atom in a 1D open space can generate nonclassical microwave states, evidenced by photon antibunching and superbunching, through scattering experiments with a superconducting transmon qubit.

Contribution

It introduces a novel setup embedding a superconducting transmon in 1D open space to produce and analyze nonclassical microwave states via scattering.

Findings

Reflected field exhibits photon antibunching.

Transmitted field shows superbunching.

Scattering properties depend on elastic and inelastic processes.

Abstract

We have embedded an artificial atom, a superconducting transmon qubit, in a 1D open space and investigated the scattering properties of an incident microwave coherent state. By studying the statistics of the reflected and transmitted fields, we demonstrate that the scattered states can be nonclassical. In particular, by measuring the second-order correlation function, $g^{(2)}$, we show photon antibunching in the reflected field and superbunching in the transmitted field. We also compare the elastically and inelastically scattered fields using both phase-sensitive and phase-insensitive measurements.