Fast generation of microwave photon Fock states in a superconducting nanocircuit

Abstract

Abstract Optimal generation of photon Fock states is of significance for quantum information processing and state engineering. Here an efficient scheme is proposed for fast generation of photon Fock states in a superconducting nanocircuit via counterdiabatic driving. A Cooper-pair box circuit, behaving as an effective three-level artificial atom, is driven by a quantized cavity mode and two classical fields. By the technique of shortcuts to adiabaticity with counterdiabatic driving, we first generate a single-photon Fock state by performing population transfer within a composite system, consisting of the atom qutrit and microwave photons. Assisted by an auxiliary driving to initialize atom state, rapid generation of multi-photon Fock states can be addressed sequentially. Compared with an adiabatic counterpart, the shortcut-based operation in a shorter time contributes to enhance fidelity. The strategy could offer a promising avenue towards optimized creation of microwave photon Fock states with superconducting quantum circuits.