Microwave quantum optics with an artificial atom in one-dimensional open space

We address recent advances in microwave quantum optics with artificial atoms in one-dimensional (1D) open space. This field relies on the fact that the coupling between a superconducting artificial atom and propagating microwave photons in a 1D open transmission line can be made strong enough to observe quantum coherent effects, without using any cavity to confine the microwave photons. We investigate the scattering properties in such a system with resonant coherent microwaves. We observe the strong nonlinearity of the artificial atom and under strong driving we observe the Mollow triplet. By applying two resonant tones, we also observe the Autler–Townes splitting. Exploiting these effects, we demonstrate two quantum devices at the singlephoton level in the microwave regime: the single-photon router and the photonnumber filter. These devices provide important steps toward the realization of an on-chip quantum network. 3 Authors to whom any correspondence should be addressed. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialShareAlike 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. New Journal of Physics 15 (2013) 025011 1367-2630/13/025011+15$33.00 © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft