Cavity Quantum Electro Optics: Microwave photonics with nonclassical states

Introduction

Optical photons propagate with ultra-low loss and do not interact easily, which makes them perfect information carriers. Logical operations and sensing, on the other hand, rely on nonlinearities and strong interactions. GHz clock speed electrical circuits are used for computing and wireless receivers – a frequency range where also some of the most promising solid-state quantum devices, such as superconducting circuits and semiconductor spin qubits, operate and interact.

Microwave Photonics

The field of microwave photonics combines these two domains of the electromagnetic spectrum with a diverse set of applications, including:

• Radar
• Satellite communication
• Radio-over-fiber
• Remote sensing

At the quantum level, however, no equivalent technology exists. This is particularly problematic because quantum systems rely on analog information exchange in a low-noise environment. Microwave quantum circuits so far are restricted to operate inside an isolated space at millikelvin temperatures.

cQEO Platform

Building on our modular electro-optic platform - the lowest noise microwave-optical interconnect to date - cQEO will realize a remarkable set of new experiments that were not possible before:

1. Heralded entanglement and teleportation of long-lived qubit states over kilometers of fiber
2. Synthesis of optical cat states from microwave cats
3. Photonic control and readout of superconducting circuits
4. Photonic masing and RF sensing below the standard quantum limit

Pushing towards higher electro-optic cooperativities will open up the rich physics known from cavity optomechanics. However, in this case, it is the readily accessible microwave field that experiences dynamical and quantum back-action rather than a mechanical mode. This represents a new physical limit akin to nonlinear optics that was predicted a decade ago but never realized.

Research Goals

cQEO aims to uncover the full range of new physics offered by high quantum cooperativity electro-optics combined with the unique capabilities of circuit quantum electrodynamics.