Mystery of disappearing photons solved

When photons interact with matter, a few per million are transformed into lower energy photons. In a specific kind of superconducting quantum circuit, the proportion of photons that undergo this transformation rises to one in three!
Researchers at Irig recently discovered that the phenomenon is related to the nature of the circuit: a chain of large Josephson junctions terminated by a smaller junction that behaves like a qubit coupled to a transmission line.
The electrical charge displaced in the vicinity of the qubit modulates the qubit’s energy.
Quantum jumps in the superconducting phase “break up” the incident photon in resonance with the qubit to form a slightly smaller photon and several low-energy photons.
This breakthrough in theoretical physics marks a step toward the long-term objective of generating multiple entangled photons in a controlled manner.

Contact: manuel.houzet@cea.fr

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