Entanglement creation in circuit QED via Landau-Zener sweeps

TL;DR

This paper explores how Landau-Zener sweeps in circuit QED can generate entanglement and produce single photons, with exact transition probabilities calculated to demonstrate robustness and independence from oscillator frequencies.

Contribution

It introduces a method for entanglement creation via Landau-Zener sweeps in circuit QED, including exact transition probability calculations that are frequency-independent.

Findings

Landau-Zener sweeps enable entanglement and photon generation in circuit QED.

Exact transition probabilities are independent of oscillator frequencies.

The method is robust for creating entangled cavity states, including Bell states.

Abstract

A qubit may undergo Landau-Zener transitions due to its coupling to one or several quantum harmonic oscillators. We show that for a qubit coupled to one oscillator, Landau-Zener transitions can be used for single-photon generation and for the controllable creation of qubit-oscillator entanglement, with state-of-the-art circuit QED as a promising realization. Moreover, for a qubit coupled to two cavities, we show that Landau-Zener sweeps of the qubit are well suited for the robust creation of entangled cavity states, in particular symmetric Bell states, with the qubit acting as the entanglement mediator. At the heart of our proposals lies the calculation of the exact Landau-Zener transition probability for the qubit, by summing all orders of the corresponding series in time-dependent perturbation theory. This transition probability emerges to be independent of the oscillator frequencies, both inside and outside the regime where a rotating-wave approximation is valid.