Amplitude and phase effects in Josephson qubits driven by a biharmonic electromagnetic field

Abstract

We investigate the amplitude and phase effects of qubit dynamics and excited-state population under the influence of a biharmonic control field. It is demonstrated that the biharmonic driving field can have a significant effect on the behavior of quasi-energy level crossing as well as on multiphoton transitions. Also, the interference pattern for the populations of qubit excited states is sensitive to the signal parameters. We discuss the possibility of using these effects for manipulating qubit states and calibrating nanosecond pulses.