From Coulomb blockade to nonlinear quantum dynamics in a superconducting circuit with a resonator

TL;DR

This paper investigates the quantum behavior of superconducting circuits with a Josephson junction and resonator, revealing a transition from incoherent to coherent tunneling and exploring quantum-classical boundaries through photon emission and noise analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of the quantum dynamics in superconducting circuits with a Josephson junction and resonator, highlighting the transition from incoherent to coherent Cooper pair tunneling.

Findings

Crossover from incoherent to coherent Cooper pair tunneling.

Photon emission as a tool to monitor charge flow.

Current noise reveals nonlinear quantum dynamics.

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments on superconducting circuits consisting of a dc-voltage biased Josephson junction in series with a resonator, quantum properties of these devices far from equilibrium are studied. This includes a crossover from a domain of incoherent to a domain of coherent Cooper pair tunneling, where the circuit realizes a driven nonlinear oscillator. Equivalently, weak photon-charge coupling turns into strong correlations captured by a single degree of freedom. Radiated photons offer a new tool to monitor charge flow and current noise gives access to nonlinear dynamics, which allows to analyze quantum-classical boundaries.