Quantum model for rf-SQUID-based metamaterials enabling three-wave mixing and four-wave mixing traveling-wave parametric amplification

A quantum model for Josephson-based metamaterials working in the three-wave mixing (3WM) and four-wave mixing (4WM) regimes at the single-photon level is presented. The transmission line taken into account, namely Josephson traveling wave parametric amplifier (JTWPA), is a bipole composed of a chain of rf-SQUIDs, which can be biased by a DC current or a magnetic field to activate the 3WM or 4WM nonlinearities. The model exploits a Hamiltonian approach to analytically determine the time evolution of the system both in the Heisenberg and interaction pictures. The former returns the analytic form of the gain of the amplifier, while the latter allows recovering the probability distributions vs time of the photonic populations, for multimodal Fock and coherent input states. The dependence of the metamaterial’s nonlinearities is presented in terms of circuit parameters in a lumped model framework while evaluating the effects of the experimental conditions on the model validity.