Squeezing light with Majorana fermions
Résumé
Coupling on-chip microwave cavities to superconducting microcircuits provides a new platform to study the light/matter interaction at the most elementary level [1]. The recent generalization of this architecture to more complex nanocircuits [2,3] offers the possibility to go beyond standard cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments usually performed with closed two level systems. A wide variety of experiments can be envisioned, with different types of hybrid nanocircuits combining nanoconductors such as carbon nanotubes or semiconducting nanowires, and metallic electrodes made out from normal metals, superconductors, or ferromagnets. Circuit Quantum Electrodynamics represents a promising method to gain more information on the behavior of electrons in these hybrid nanocircuits. In this talk, I will discuss the coupling of a microwave cavity to Majorana quasiparticles obtained in a semiconducting-nanowire-based-device [4]. These exotic bound states can cause a significant cavity frequency shift and a strong cavity nonlinearity leading for instance to light squeezing. I will show that the dependence of these effects on the nanowire gate voltages should give direct signatures of the unique properties of Majorana fermions, such as their self-adjoint character and their exponential confinement. References [1] A. Wallraff, D. I. Schuster, A. Blais, L. Frunzio, R.- S. Huang, J. Majer, S. Kumar, S. M. Girvin and R. J. Schoelkopf, Nature 431, 162 (2004). [2] M.R. Delbecq, V. Schmitt, F.D. Parmentier, N. Roch, J.J. Viennot, G. Fève, B. Huard, C. Mora, A. Cottet, and T. Kontos, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 256804 (2011). [3] T. Frey, P. J. Leek, M. Beck, A. Blais, T. Ihn, K. Ensslin, and A. Wallraff, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 046807 (2012). [4] A. Cottet, T. Kontos, and B. Douçot, Phys. Rev. B 88, 195415 (2013).