Prospects of cooling a mechanical resonator with a transmon qubit in c-QED setup

TL;DR

This paper explores a hybrid superconducting system combining a mechanical resonator and a transmon qubit, demonstrating the potential for ground-state cooling and strong coupling in a c-QED setup.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid system with dispersive coupling between a mechanical resonator and a transmon qubit, analyzing cooling and measurement capabilities.

Findings

Ground-state cooling of the mechanical resonator is achievable.

Dispersive measurement of thermomechanical motion is demonstrated.

Single-photon strong coupling could be realized in such systems.

Abstract

Hybrid devices based on the superconducting qubits have emerged as a promising platform for controlling the quantum states of macroscopic resonators. The nonlinearity added by a qubit can be a valuable resource for such control. Here we study a hybrid system consisting of a mechanical resonator longitudinally coupled to a transmon qubit. The qubit readout can be done by coupling to a readout mode like in c-QED setup. The coupling between the mechanical resonator and transmon qubit can be implemented by modulation of the SQUID inductance. In such a tri-partite system, we analyze the steady-state occupation of the mechanical mode when all three modes are dispersively coupled. We use the quantum-noise and the Lindblad formalism to show that the sideband cooling of the mechanical mode to its ground state is achievable. We further experimentally demonstrate that measurements of the thermomechanical motion is possible in the dispersive limit, while maintaining a large coupling between qubit and mechanical mode. Our theoretical calculations suggest that single-photon strong coupling is within the experimental reach in such hybrid devices.