Dressed collective qubit states and the Tavis-Cummings model in circuit QED.

We present an ideal realization of the Tavis-Cummings model in the absence of atom number and coupling fluctuations by embedding a discrete number of fully controllable superconducting qubits at fixed positions into a transmission line resonator. Measuring the vacuum Rabi mode splitting with one, two, and three qubits strongly coupled to the cavity field, we explore both bright and dark dressed collective multiqubit states and observe the discrete square root N scaling of the collective dipole coupling strength. Our experiments demonstrate a novel approach to explore collective states, such as the W state, in a fully globally and locally controllable quantum system. Our scalable approach is interesting for solid-state quantum information processing and for fundamental multiatom quantum optics experiments with fixed atom numbers.

Measurement of Autler-Townes and Mollow transitions in a strongly driven superconducting qubit.

We present spectroscopic measurements of the Autler-Townes doublet and the sidebands of the Mollow triplet in a driven superconducting qubit. The ground to first excited state transition of the qubit is strongly pumped while the resulting dressed qubit spectrum is probed with a weak tone. The corresponding transitions are detected using dispersive readout of the qubit coupled off resonantly to a microwave transmission line resonator. The observed frequencies of the Autler-Townes and Mollow spectral lines are in good agreement with a dispersive Jaynes-Cummings model taking into account higher excited qubit states and dispersive level shifts due to off-resonant drives.

Two-qubit state tomography using a joint dispersive readout.

Quantum state tomography is an important tool in quantum information science for complete characterization of multiqubit states and their correlations. Here we report a method to perform a joint simultaneous readout of two superconducting qubits dispersively coupled to the same mode of a microwave transmission line resonator. The nonlinear dependence of the resonator transmission on the qubit state dependent cavity frequency allows us to extract the full two-qubit correlations without the need for single-shot readout of individual qubits. We employ standard tomographic techniques to reconstruct the density matrix of two-qubit quantum states.

Resolving vacuum fluctuations in an electrical circuit by measuring the Lamb shift.

Quantum theory predicts that empty space is not truly empty. Even in the absence of any particles or radiation, in pure vacuum, virtual particles are constantly created and annihilated. In an electromagnetic field, the presence of virtual photons manifests itself as a small renormalization of the energy of a quantum system, known as the Lamb shift. We present an experimental observation of the Lamb shift in a solid-state system. The strong dispersive coupling of a superconducting electronic circuit acting as a quantum bit (qubit) to the vacuum field in a transmission-line resonator leads to measurable Lamb shifts of up to 1.4% of the qubit transition frequency. The qubit is also observed to couple more strongly to the vacuum field than to a single photon inside the cavity, an effect that is explained by taking into account the limited anharmonicity of the higher excited qubit states.

Climbing the Jaynes-Cummings ladder and observing its nonlinearity in a cavity QED system.

The field of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED), traditionally studied in atomic systems, has gained new momentum by recent reports of quantum optical experiments with solid-state semiconducting and superconducting systems. In cavity QED, the observation of the vacuum Rabi mode splitting is used to investigate the nature of matter-light interaction at a quantum-mechanical level. However, this effect can, at least in principle, be explained classically as the normal mode splitting of two coupled linear oscillators. It has been suggested that an observation of the scaling of the resonant atom-photon coupling strength in the Jaynes-Cummings energy ladder with the square root of photon number n is sufficient to prove that the system is quantum mechanical in nature. Here we report a direct spectroscopic observation of this characteristic quantum nonlinearity. Measuring the photonic degree of freedom of the coupled system, our measurements provide unambiguous spectroscopic evidence for the quantum nature of the resonant atom-field interaction in cavity QED. We explore atom-photon superposition states involving up to two photons, using a spectroscopic pump and probe technique. The experiments have been performed in a circuit QED set-up, in which very strong coupling is realized by the large dipole coupling strength and the long coherence time of a superconducting qubit embedded in a high-quality on-chip microwave cavity. Circuit QED systems also provide a natural quantum interface between flying qubits (photons) and stationary qubits for applications in quantum information processing and communication.

Observation of Berry's phase in a solid-state qubit.

In quantum information science, the phase of a wave function plays an important role in encoding information. Although most experiments in this field rely on dynamic effects to manipulate this information, an alternative approach is to use geometric phase, which has been argued to have potential fault tolerance. We demonstrated the controlled accumulation of a geometric phase, Berry's phase, in a superconducting qubit; we manipulated the qubit geometrically by means of microwave radiation and observed the accumulated phase in an interference experiment. We found excellent agreement with Berry's predictions and also observed a geometry-dependent contribution to dephasing.

Experimental studies of lateral stress to transverse fractured femora treated with external fixation.

As part of a postmortem research project 9 beagle femora were dynamically tested by means of three-point bending. The test device was a spring driven impactor with an impact velocity of 3 m/s. Maximum bending force, deflection and force-deflection history were documented. After the impact transverse fractures were observed in 6 specimens, while another 3 specimens showed short oblique fractures. The fractured femora were treated realistically with external fixation (triax monotube) and again loaded on the impactor. After this treatment of the specimens and dynamic loading comminuted fractures occurred. In 7 cases all 4 pins were distorted. While there was only a small difference between the mean bending force of 751.01 N before and 729.54 N after treatment, a significant difference in terms of deflection and bending stiffness showed with p = 0.0039 for both parameters. This experimental result means that in cases of transverse fractures caused by ventral force only 9.6 % of the initial bending stiffness is obtained after stabilization with external fixation. Considering the fact that the use of external fixation protracts the time to bone consolidation of transverse fractures, this method cannot be designed as the therapy of choice.