Simultaneous excitation of two noninteracting atoms with time-frequency correlated photon pairs in a superconducting circuit

We report the first observation of simultaneous excitation of two noninteracting atoms by a pair of time frequency correlated photons in a superconducting circuit. The strong coupling regime of this process enables the synthesis of a three body interaction Hamiltonian, which allows the generation of the tripartite Greenberger-Home-Zeilinger state in a single step with a fidelity as high as 0.95. We further demonstrate the inhibition of the simultaneous two-atom excitation by continuously measuring whether the first photon is emitted. This work provides a new route in synthesizing many-body interaction Hamiltonian and coherent control of entanglement.