The dynamical Casimir effect in superconducting microwave circuits

Abstract

We theoretically investigate the dynamical Casimir effect in electrical circuits based on superconducting microfabricated waveguides with tunable boundary conditions. We propose to implement a rapid modulation of the boundary conditions by tuning the applied magnetic flux through superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) that are embedded in the waveguide circuits. We consider two circuits: (i) An open waveguide circuit that corresponds to a single mirror in free space, and (ii) a resonator coupled to a microfabricated waveguide, which corresponds to a single-sided cavity in free space. We analyze the properties of the dynamical Casimir effect in these two setups by calculating the generated photon-flux density, output-field correlation functions, and the quadrature squeezing spectra. We show that these properties of the output field exhibit signatures unique to the radiation due to the dynamical Casimir effect, and could therefore be used for distinguishing the dynamical Casimir effect from other types of radiation in these circuits. We also discuss the similarities and differences between the dynamical Casimir effect, in the resonator setup, and downconversion of pump photons in parametric oscillators.

18 pages, 14 figures

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• Relativistic Quantum Teleportation with Superconducting Circuits
• Optomechanical-like coupling between superconducting resonators
• Circuit analog of quadratic optomechanics
• Dynamical Casimir Effect in Quantum Information Processing
• Experimental quantum cosmology in time-dependent optical media
• Quantum discord in the Dynamical Casimir Effect
• New signatures of the dynamical Casimir effect in a superconducting circuit
• Superconducting circuit boundary conditions beyond the Dynamical Casimir Effect
• Continuous intracavity monitoring of the dynamical Casimir effect
• Exact behavior of the energy density inside a one-dimensional oscillating cavity with a thermal state
• Parametric amplification of light in a cavity with a moving dielectric membrane: Landau-Zener problem for the Maxwell field