Quantum-circuit refrigeration of a superconducting microwave resonator well below a single quantum

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a recently proposed single-junction quantum-circuit refrigerator (QCR) as an in situ tunable low-temperature environment for a superconducting 4.7 GHz resonator. With the help of a transmon qubit, we measure the populations of the different resonator Fock states, thus providing reliable access to the temperature of the engineered electromagnetic environment and its effect on the resonator. We demonstrate coherent and thermal resonator states and that the on-demand dissipation provided by the QCR can drive these to a small fraction of a photon on average, even if starting above 1 K. We observe that the QCR can be operated either with a dc bias voltage or a gigahertz rf drive, or a combination of these. The bandwidth of the rf drive is not limited by the circuit itself and consequently, we show that 2.9 GHz continuous and 10 ns pulsed drives lead to identical desired refrigeration of the resonator. These observations answer to the shortcomings of previous works where the Fock states were not resolvable and the QCR exhibited slow charging dynamics. Thus, this work introduces a versatile tool to study open quantum systems, quantum thermodynamics, and to quickly reset superconducting qubits.