English

Quantum frequency locking and down-conversion in a driven cavity-qubit system

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2021-01-07 v2 Optics

Abstract

We study a periodically driven qubit coupled to a quantized cavity mode. Despite its apparent simplicity, this system supports a rich variety of exotic phenomena, such as topological frequency conversion as recently discovered in [Martin et al, PRX 7, 041008 (2017)]. Here we report on a qualitatively different phenomenon that occurs in this platform, where the cavity mode's oscillations lock their frequency to a rational fraction r/qr/q of the driving frequency Ω\Omega. This phenomenon, which we term quantum frequency locking, is characterized by the emergence of qq-tuplets of stationary (Floquet) states whose quasienergies are separated by Ω/q\Omega/q, up to exponentially small corrections. The Wigner functions of these states are nearly identical, and exhibit highly-regular and symmetric structure in phase space. Similarly to Floquet time crystals, these states underlie discrete time-translation symmetry breaking in the model. We develop a semiclassical approach for analyzing and predicting quantum frequency locking in the model, and use it to identify the conditions under which it occurs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2003.05648,
  title  = {Quantum frequency locking and down-conversion in a driven cavity-qubit system},
  author = {Frederik Nathan and Gil Refael and Mark S. Rudner and Ivar Martin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.05648},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T14:12:29.920Z