ABSTRACT
We report the observation of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) of a mechanical field, where a superconducting artificial atom is coupled to a 1D-transmission line for surface acoustic waves. An electromagnetic microwave drive is used as the control field, rendering the superconducting transmon qubit transparent to the acoustic probe beam. The strong frequency dependence of the acoustic coupling enables EIT in a ladder configuration due to the suppressed relaxation of the upper level. Our results show that superconducting circuits can be engineered to interact with acoustic fields in parameter regimes not readily accessible to purely electromagnetic systems.
ABSTRACT
Quantum information can be stored in micromechanical resonators, encoded as quanta of vibration known as phonons. The vibrational motion is then restricted to the stationary eigenmodes of the resonator, which thus serves as local storage for phonons. In contrast, we couple propagating phonons to an artificial atom in the quantum regime and reproduce findings from quantum optics, with sound taking over the role of light. Our results highlight the similarities between phonons and photons but also point to new opportunities arising from the characteristic features of quantum mechanical sound. The low propagation speed of phonons should enable new dynamic schemes for processing quantum information, and the short wavelength allows regimes of atomic physics to be explored that cannot be reached in photonic systems.
