Stroboscopic detection of itinerant microwave photons

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.16522v1
• Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2026 13:45:18 GMT
• Title: Stroboscopic detection of itinerant microwave photons
• Abstract summary: We show how to implement a near-projective measurement of a photon impinging on one of the cavities.<n>We achieve highly efficient detection with low dark counts.
• Score: 0.0
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: We present a novel scheme to detect itinerant microwave radiation at the single photon level. Using existing Josephson-photonics devices, where two microwave cavities are coupled by a dc-voltage biased superconducting junction, we theoretically show how to implement a stroboscopically repeated, near-projective measurement of a photon impinging on one of the cavities. Optimizing rate, duration, and strength of the measurement by flux control of the junction and developing a threshold protocol to detect the photon from a homodyne measurement of the radiation output of the other cavity, we achieve highly efficient detection with low dark counts. By cascading the detector with a preamplifier, where a similar two-cavity Josephson-photonics device acts as a photon multiplier, we can further improve the device to reach a detection efficiency of $88.5 \%$ with a dark count rate of $\sim10^{-4} γ_a$, set by the resonance width $γ_a$ of the absorbing cavity. These results for a multiplication factor of two suggest that near-unity efficiencies may be reached for higher multiplication factors.

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