Constructing and characterising anharmonic potentials in a harmonic oscillator

Abstract

Continuous-variable quantum systems offer a natural platform for quantum information processing and analogue quantum simulation of real-world processes. Realising these applications, however, requires anharmonic potentials with programmable functional forms, which are challenging to engineer on demand. Here, in a superconducting harmonic oscillator coupled to a transmon qubit, we construct programmable non-Gaussian phase gates $e^{-iV(\hat{X})}$, corresponding to the impulsive action of an anharmonic potential $V(\hat{X})$, and characterise them by reconstructing their corresponding force pointwise. Using bosonic quantum signal processing, we compile target potentials into modular circuits of qubit rotations interleaved with a fixed conditional-displacement primitive. We first demonstrate a cubic phase gate whose cubic nature is jointly validated by the resulting non-Gaussian states and the force reconstructed pointwise from the gate's action on coherent probe states. We then construct a family of double-well potentials and use the reconstructed force to witness the double-well topology and tunable asymmetry. Finally, we engineer an approximate Morse potential and obtain its force profile using position-compressed probes, which extend reliable reconstruction towards the steep repulsive wall. These results establish a programmable route to constructing the potential landscape of quantum harmonic oscillators and a practical method for reconstructing its spatial structure, providing a building block for quantum simulation of anharmonic dynamics.

arXiv commentMain text: 9 pages with 4 figures. Supplemental Material: 15 pages with 3 figures and 16 tables