12/07/2016
Resonance fluorescence is an iconic example of quantum optics in open systems—those that interact with the environment. It describes the scattering of light from a two-state system, such as an atom, that is illuminated by light at its resonance frequency, and it is a direct result of quantum fluctuations in the vacuum. In a remarkable experiment with a superconducting-circuit qubit and squeezed microwave photons, researchers have extended the observation of resonance fluorescence from a two-state system bathed by ordinary vacuum fluctuations to one embedded in a reengineered bath where vacuum fluctuations are squeezed, thus permitting narrow spectroscopic lines to be observed [1]. This work, from the laboratory of Ifan Sidiqqi at the University of California, Berkeley, realizes a theoretical proposal of some 30 years standing, and it demonstrates, yet again, the power of superconducting-circuit quantum optics in addressing textbook physics in the area of simple open quantum systems.
By bathing a superconducting qubit in squeezed light, researchers have been able to confirm a decades-old prediction for the resulting phase-dependent spectrum of resonance fluorescence.