• Corpus ID: 248562728

Tunable directional photon scattering from a pair of superconducting qubits

@inproceedings{Redchenko2022TunableDP,
  title={Tunable directional photon scattering from a pair of superconducting qubits},
  author={Elena Redchenko and Alexander V. Poshakinskiy and Riya Sett and Martin Žemli{\vc}ka and Alexander N. Poddubny and Johannes M. Fink},
  year={2022}
}

• E. Redchenko, A. Poshakinskiy, +3 authors J. Fink
• Published 6 May 2022
• Physics

The ability to control the direction of scattered light is crucial to provide the flexibility and scal-ability for a wide range of on-chip applications, such as integrated photonics, quantum information processing and nonlinear optics. In the optical and microwave frequency ranges tunable directionality can be achieved by applying external magnetic fields that modify optical selection rules [1, 2], by using nonlinear effects [3], or interactions with vibrations [4–6]. However, these approaches are less suitable to control propagation of microwave photons inside integrated superconducting quantum devices [7], that is highly desirable. Here, we demonstrate on-demand tunable directional scattering based on two periodically modulated transmon qubits coupled to a transmission line at a fixed distance [8–10] in close analogy to two oscillating mirrors [11, 12]. By continuously changing the relative phase between the local modulation tones, we realize unidirectional forward or backward photon scattering. Such an in-situ switchable mirror represents a versatile tool for intra- and inter-chip microwave photonic processors. In the future, a lattice of qubits can be used to realize topological circuits that exhibit stronger nonreciprocity or chirality [13].