Dynamics of the quantum Duffing oscillator in the driving induced bistable regime

TL;DR

This paper explores the nonlinear dynamics of a quantum Duffing oscillator under strong periodic driving, revealing effective bistability and resonant tunneling phenomena relevant for nano-electromechanical systems and quantum computing readouts.

Contribution

It introduces a Floquet-based master equation approach to analyze driven quantum nonlinear resonators, highlighting bistability and tunneling effects.

Findings

Identification of effective bistability induced by strong driving

Observation of resonant tunneling and multi-photon transitions

Application to nano-electromechanical devices and quantum readouts

Abstract

We investigate the nonlinear response of an anharmonic monostable quantum mechanical resonator to strong external periodic driving. The driving thereby induces an effective bistability in which resonant tunneling can be identified. Within the framework of a Floquet analysis, an effective Floquet-Born-Markovian master equation with time-independent coefficients can be established which can be solved straightforwardly. Various effects including resonant tunneling and multi-photon transitions will be described. Our model finds applications in nano-electromechanical devices such as vibrating suspended nano-wires as well as in non-destructive read-out procedures for superconducting quantum bits involving the nonlinear response of the read-out SQUID.