Deterministically Encoding Quantum Information Using 100-Photon Schrödinger Cat States
Brian Vlastakis, Gerhard Kirchmair, Zaki Leghtas, Simon E. Nigg, Luigi Frunzio, S. M. Girvin, Mazyar Mirrahimi, Michel Devoret, Robert J. Schoelkopf · Science · 2013
In contrast to a single quantum bit, an oscillator can store multiple excitations and coherences provided one has the ability to generate and manipulate complex multiphoton states. We demonstrate multiphoton control by using a superconducting transmon qubit coupled to a waveguide cavity resonator with a highly ideal off-resonant coupling. This dispersive interaction is much greater than decoherence rates and higher-order nonlinearities to allow simultaneous manipulation of hundreds of photons. With a tool set of conditional qubit-photon logic, we mapped an arbitrary qubit state to a superposition of coherent states, known as a "cat state." We created cat states as large as 111 photons and extended this protocol to create superpositions of up to four coherent states. This control creates a powerful interface between discrete and continuous variable quantum computation and could enable applications in metrology and quantum information processing.