Microwave Photons

Abstract

This chapter studies linear circuits built from capacitors, inductors, and waveguides. It shows how the excitations of these circuits are quantized and can be described as collections of quantum harmonic oscillators. It discusses the quantum states and quantum operations that are accessible by means of these circuits and external microwave drives. We show how to create coherent states, how microwave resonators decay and decohere, how to amplify and measure the quantum state of a resonator, and what states (e.g., Fock states, individual photons) require other, non-Gaussian means to be produced and detected.