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Implementation of a quantum metamaterial using superconducting qubits
The key issue for the implementation of a metamaterial is to demonstrate the existence of collective modes corresponding to coherent oscillations of the meta-atoms. Atoms of natural materials interact with electromagnetic fields as quantum two-level systems. Artificial quantum two-level systems can...
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Published in: | Nature communications 2014-10, Vol.5 (1), p.5146, Article 5146 |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | The key issue for the implementation of a metamaterial is to demonstrate the existence of collective modes corresponding to coherent oscillations of the meta-atoms. Atoms of natural materials interact with electromagnetic fields as quantum two-level systems. Artificial quantum two-level systems can be made, for example, using superconducting nonlinear resonators cooled down to their ground state. Here we perform an experiment in which 20 of these quantum meta-atoms, so-called flux qubits, are embedded into a microwave resonator. We observe the dispersive shift of the resonator frequency imposed by the qubit metamaterial and the collective resonant coupling of eight qubits. The realized prototype represents a mesoscopic limit of naturally occurring spin ensembles and as such we demonstrate the AC-Zeeman shift of a resonant qubit ensemble. The studied system constitutes the implementation of a basic quantum metamaterial in the sense that many artificial atoms are coupled collectively to the quantized mode of a photon field.
Superconducting flux qubits operating as two-level systems can act as artificial atoms, and so represent a potential metamaterial building block. Macha
et al.
assemble 20 such qubits into a metamaterial in which the ‘atoms’ are collectively coupled to the quantized mode of a microwave photon field. |
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ISSN: | 2041-1723 2041-1723 |
DOI: | 10.1038/ncomms6146 |