Frequency up/down conversion by multiphoton pumping in superconducting qubit circuits

We propose a versatile scheme for multiphoton frequency up/down conversion in flux superconducting qubit circuits, driven by a pair of microwaves tuned near and far off the qubit resonance. Flux qubits can be engineered with strong anharmonicity such that the two lowest eigenstates are energetically well separated from the higher ones. We demonstrate the high order non-linear transitions between the two lowest levels in the three-photon regime, by coupling the qubit to bichromatic microwave fields with the same Rabi frequencies. Both up and down conversions are presented and accurately interpreted with many-mode Floquet formalism. An intuitive graph theoretic approach elucidates the physics of multiphoton pumping and population trapping. The analytical solutions also illustrate how controllability is achievable for desired single- or multiphoton pumping processes in a wide range of frequencies. The proposed design and theoretical approach are applicable in maintaining the inter-connectivity of future superconducting quantum machines.