On-chip circuit produces up to six microwave photons at the same time

Bob Yirka is a writer for Phys.org.

A group of researchers from the University of Ulm, the Institute of Quantum Technologies, and the University of Paris-Saclay have developed an on-chip circuit that can produce up to six microwave photons at the same time. The group describes how they built the device, how well it worked, and its possible use as a more efficient way to produce entangled particles in a paper published in the journal Physical Review X.

Scientists and engineers have found many uses for entangled particles and have been looking for a way to produce them more efficiently. They are created using a device that splits a photon into two particles. The researchers have taken a different approach in this effort.

A Josephson junction, a coil inductor and aCapacitor were used to design the circuit. A Josephson junction is a device with two strips of superconductors on a base plate. A barrier is set between them. Cooper pairs of electrons are created when the voltage is applied to one of the strips. The amount of energy they have depends on the amount of voltage applied.

In the new circuit, the coil inductor and theCapacitor were changed so that they would work at microwave frequencies and the number of photons emitted by the device was dependent on the voltage applied. The device is able to produce six photons at the same time. The researchers didn't test the photons to see if they were entangled, but they believe they were based on previous experiments. They didn't attempt to modify the device to see if more than six photons could be produced. If the device works as hoped, it could signal the start of a new wave of research based on groups of entangled particles.

More information: G. C. Ménard et al, Emission of Photon Multiplets by a dc-Biased Superconducting Circuit, Physical Review X (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021006 Journal information: Physical Review X

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