Squeezing with a flux-driven Josephson parametric amplifier

L. Zhong, E.P. Menzel, R. Di Candia, P. Eder, M. Ihmig, A. Baust, M. Haeberlein, E. Hoffmann, K. Inomata, T. Yamamoto, Y. Nakamura, Enrique Solano, F. Deppe, A. Marx, R. Gross

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

98 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Josephson parametric amplifiers (JPA) are promising devices for applications in circuit quantum electrodynamics and for studies on propagating quantum microwaves because of their good noise performance. In this work, we present a systematic characterization of a flux-driven JPA at millikelvin temperatures. In particular, we study in detail its squeezing properties by two different detection techniques. With the homodyne setup, we observe the squeezing of vacuum fluctuations by superposing signal and idler bands. For a quantitative analysis, we apply dual-path cross-correlation techniques to reconstruct the Wigner functions of various squeezed vacuum and thermal states. At 10 dB signal gain, we find 4.9 ± 0.2 dB squeezing below the vacuum. In addition, we discuss the physics behind squeezed coherent microwave fields. Finally, we analyze the JPA noise temperature in the degenerate mode and find a value smaller than the standard quantum limit for phase-insensitive amplifiers.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages25
JournalNew Journal of Physics
Volume15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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