Measurement of the decay of Fock states in a superconducting quantum circuit.
We demonstrate the controlled generation of Fock states with up to 15 photons in a microwave coplanar waveguide resonator coupled to a superconducting phase qubit. The subsequent decay of the Fock states, due to dissipation, is then monitored by varying the time delay between preparing the state and performing a number-state analysis. We find that the decay dynamics can be described by a master equation where the lifetime of the n-photon Fock state scales as 1/n, in agreement with theory. We have also generated a coherent state in the microwave resonator, and monitored its decay process. We demonstrate that the coherent state maintains a Poisson distribution as it decays, with an average photon number that decreases with the same characteristic decay time as the one-photon Fock state.
Wang
H
H
Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
Hofheinz
M
M
Ansmann
M
M
Bialczak
R C
RC
Lucero
E
E
Neeley
M
M
O'Connell
A D
AD
Sank
D
D
Wenner
J
J
Cleland
A N
AN
Martinis
John M
JM