Quantum dynamics of a driven three-level Josephson-atom maser

Recently, a lasing effect has been observed in a superconducting nanocircuit where a Cooper-pair box, acting as an artificial three-level atom, was coupled to a resonator [O. Astafiev, K. Inomata, A. O. Niskanen, T. Yamamoto, Yu. A. Pashkin, Y. Nakamura, and J. S. Tsai, Nature (London) 449, 588 (2007)]. Motivated by this experiment, we analyze...

Detecting phonon blockade with photons

Measuring the quantum dynamics of a mechanical system, when few phonons are involved, remains a challenge. We show that a superconducting microwave resonator linearly coupled to the mechanical mode constitutes a very powerful probe for this scope. This new coupling can be much stronger than the usual radiation pressure interaction by adjusting a...