1. Observation of the two-photon Landau-Zener-St\'uckelberg-Majorana effect
- Author
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Björkman, Isak, Kuzmanović, Marko, and Paraoanu, Gheorghe Sorin
- Subjects
Quantum Physics ,Condensed Matter - Other Condensed Matter - Abstract
Second-order processes introduce nonlinearities in quantum dynamics, unlocking a totally unexpected area of control operations. Here we show that the well-known Landau-Zener-St\"uckelberg-Majorana (LZSM) transition can be driven by a virtual process in a three-level system whereby two photons from a drive with linearly-modulated phase create excitations onto the third level while avoiding completely the first level. We implement this experimentally in a transmon qubit achieving a population transfer of $98\%$, limited by relaxation. We predict and observe experimentally the doubling of the LZSM velocity. The observation of this effect is made possible by the nearly-exact cancellation of the two-photon ac Stark shift when the third transition is included. Furthermore, we demonstrate considerable robustness to offsets in frequency and amplitude, both in theory and experimentally.
- Published
- 2024