Transmon Architecture for Emission and Detection of Single Microwave Photons

Abstract: We showcase the recently developed double transmon coupler (DTC) circuit as a compact, drop-in, tunable and transition-selective link between an otherwise coherent transmon and the continuum of modes in a waveguide. We use these transmon-DTC devices as transmon emitter/dectectors (TEDs) for microwave photons. We highlight the flexibility of these devices by sending photons from a source TED to a measurement TED using a meter of coaxial cable and a circulator, each TED with nominally identical circuit parameters. We detect $60\,\%$ of the photons using this setup where we infer that $95\,\%$ of the photons at the input of the measurement TED are detected. Reset and photon emission/detection each require about $2\,μ$s, for a minimum protocol duration of $4\,μ$s, for our choice of TED parameters. Transmon-waveguide links like the DTC serve an important role in quantum information processors: they provide a mechanism for unconditional fast reset, metrology, and as nascent quantum communication interfaces for quantum networking.