Dr. Aishwarya Kumar, Stanford University

Hybrid quantum science with neutral atoms in superconducting resonators

Understanding and manipulating interactions of atoms with light is central to a wide variety of quantum science, particularly analog simulations of quantum many-body physics, metrology, and more recently, quantum computing. When excited to Rydberg states, atoms can also interact strongly with millimeter-wave and microwave photons. In this talk, I will show how coupling atoms to superconducting resonators at these frequencies enables the engineering of novel, hybrid quantum devices, and opens the door to new opportunities in cavity quantum electrodynamics. In particular, I will describe a first-of-its-kind experiment where ultracold atoms interact simultaneously with optical and superconducting millimeter-wave (100 GHz) resonators. As a step towards networking of superconducting quantum information processors, we harness this platform to transduce individual millimeter-wave photons to optical photons, with state-of-the-art efficiency, bandwidth, and less than a single quantum of added noise. I will conclude by describing the exciting opportunities opened by this platform, including the generation of Heisenberg limited squeezing, photon-photon interactions, and even non-local gates for an error-corrected quantum computer.