An atom in open space can be detected by means of resonant absorption and reemission of electromagnetic waves, known as resonance fluorescence, which is a fundamental phenomenon of quantum optics. We report on the observation of scattering of propagating waves by a single artificial atom. The behavior of the artificial atom, a superconducting macroscopic two-level system, is in a quantitative agreement with the predictions of quantum optics for a pointlike scatterer interacting with the electromagnetic field in one-dimensional open space. The strong atom-field interaction as revealed in a high degree of extinction of propagating waves will allow applications of controllable artificial atoms in quantum optics and photonics.A single atom interacting with electromagnetic modes of free space is a fundamental example of an open quantum system (Fig. 1A) [1]. The interaction between the atom (or molecule, quantum dot, et cetera) and a resonant electromagnetic field is particularly important for quantum electronics and quantum information processing. In three-dimensional (3D) space, however, although perfect coupling (with 100% extinction of transmitted power) is theoretically feasible [2], experimentally achieved extinction has not exceeded 12% [3][4][5][6][7] because of spatial mode mismatch between incident and scattered waves. This problem can be avoided by an efficient coupling of the atom to the continuum of electromagnetic modes confined in a 1D transmission line (Fig. 1B) as proposed in [8,9]. Here we demonstrate extinction of 94% on an artificial atom coupled to the open 1D transmission line. The situation with the atom interacting with freely propagating waves is qualitatively different from that of the atom interacting with a single cavity mode; the latter has been used to demonstrate a series of cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) phenomena [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Moreover in open space, the atom directly reveals such phenomena known from quantum optics as anomalous dispersion and strongly nonlinear behavior in elastic (Rayleigh) scattering near the atomic resonance[1]. Furthermore, spectrum of inelastically scattered radiation is observed and exhibits the resonance fluorescence triplet (the Mollow triplet) [19][20][21][22][23] under a strong drive.Our artificial atom is a macroscopic superconducting loop, interrupted by Josephson junctions (Fig. 1B) [identical to a flux qubit [24]] and threaded by a bias flux Φ b close to a half flux quantum Φ 0 /2, and shares a segment with the transmission line [25], which results in a loop-line mutual inductance M mainly due to kinetic * On leave from Physical-Technical Institute, Tashkent 100012, Uzbekistan † On leave from Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow 119991, Russia inductance of the shared segment [26]. The two lowest eigenstates of the atom are naturally expressed via superpositions of two states with persistent current, I p , flowing clockwise or counterclockwise. In energy eigenbasis the lowest two levels |g and |e are described by the truncated...

A practical quantum computer, if built, would consist of a set of coupled two-level quantum systems (qubits). Among the variety of qubits implemented, solid-state qubits are of particular interest because of their potential suitability for integrated devices. A variety of qubits based on Josephson junctions have been implemented; these exploit the coherence of Cooper-pair tunnelling in the superconducting state. Despite apparent progress in the implementation of individual solid-state qubits, there have been no experimental reports of multiple qubit gates--a basic requirement for building a real quantum computer. Here we demonstrate a Josephson circuit consisting of two coupled charge qubits. Using a pulse technique, we coherently mix quantum states and observe quantum oscillations, the spectrum of which reflects interaction between the qubits. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of coupling multiple solid-state qubits, and indicate the existence of entangled two-qubit states.

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