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In this thesis, we investigate the behavior of Josephson circuits under the action of strong microwave drives. Josephson circuits in the quantum regime are a building block to emulate a variety of Hamiltonians, useful to process quantum information. We are here considering a transmon device, made of a Josephson junction and a capacitor in parallel. Through numerical simulations and comparison with experimental results, we show that these drives lead to an instability which results in the escape of the circuit state into states which are no longer confined by the Josephson cosine potential. When the transmon occupies such states, the circuit behaves as if the junction had been removed and all non-linearities are lost, which translates into limitations on the emulated Hamiltonian strengths. In a second part, we propose and study an alternative circuit consisting of a transmon device with an extra inductive shunt, providing a harmonic confinement. This circuit is found to be stable for all pump powers. The dynamics of this circuit is also well captured by a time-averaged model, providing a useful tool for analytical investigation and fast numerical simulations. We developed a novel numerical approach that avoids the built-in limitations of perturbative analysis to investigate the dynamical behavior of both of these circuits. This approach, based on the Floquet-Markov theory, resulted in a modular simulation framework which can be used to study other Josephson-based circuits. Last, we study the properties of an asymmetric version of the Josephson Ring Modulator, a circuit currently used for amplification and conversion, as a more robust source of non-linearity to engineer two-photon and four-photon interaction Hamiltonians required for the catstate encoding of quantum information.; Dans cette thèse, nous étudions le comportement de circuits Josephson sous l'action de champs microondes forts. Les circuits Josephson dans le régime quantique sont une brique pour émuler une variété d'hamiltoniens, utiles pour traiter l'information quantique. Nous étudions ici le transmon, constitué d'une jonction Josephson et d'un condensateur en parallèle. À travers des simulations numériques et en comparant aux résultats expérimentaux, nous montrons que ces champs conduisent à une instabilité qui envoie le circuit sur des états qui ne sont plus confinés par le potentiel Josephson en cosinus. Quand le transmon occupe de tels états, le circuit se comporte comme si la jonction avait été remplacée par un interrupteur ouvert et toute non-linéarité est perdue, ce qui se traduit par des limitations sur les amplitudes maximales des hamiltoniens émulés. Dans une deuxième partie, nous proposons et étudions un circuit alternatif basé sur un transmon avec une inductance en parallèle, qui fournit un confinement harmonique. La dynamique de ce circuit est stable et bien capturée par un modèle moyennisé qui fournit alors un outil pratique pour l'analyse analytique ou les simulations rapides. Nous avons développé un nouvel outil de simulations modulaire et basé sur la théorie de FloquetMarkov pour permettre de simuler facilement d'autres circuits Josephson en évitant les limitations des analyses perturbatives. Enfin, nous étudions les propriétés d'une version asymétrique du Josephson Ring Modulator, un circuit actuellement utilisé pour l'amplification et la conversion, comme source de non-linéarité pour émuler les hamiltoniens d'interaction à deux et quatre photons requis pour l'encodage de l'information quantique sur des états de chats de Schrödinger.

In this thesis, we investigate the behavior of Josephson circuits under the action of strong microwave drives. Josephson circuits in the quantum regime are a building block to emulate a variety of Hamiltonians, useful to process quantum information. We are here considering a transmon device, made of a Josephson junction and a capacitor in parallel. Through numerical simulations and comparison with experimental results, we show that these drives lead to an instability which results in the escape of the circuit state into states which are no longer confined by the Josephson cosine potential. When the transmon occupies such states, the circuit behaves as if the junction had been removed and all non-linearities are lost, which translates into limitations on the emulated Hamiltonian strengths. In a second part, we propose and study an alternative circuit consisting of a transmon device with an extra inductive shunt, providing a harmonic confinement. This circuit is found to be stable for all pump powers. The dynamics of this circuit is also well captured by a time-averaged model, providing a useful tool for analytical investigation and fast numerical simulations. We developed a novel numerical approach that avoids the built-in limitations of perturbative analysis to investigate the dynamical behavior of both of these circuits. This approach, based on the Floquet-Markov theory, resulted in a modular simulation framework which can be used to study other Josephson-based circuits. Last, we study the properties of an asymmetric version of the Josephson Ring Modulator, a circuit currently used for amplification and conversion, as a more robust source of non-linearity to engineer two-photon and four-photon interaction Hamiltonians required for the catstate encoding of quantum information.; Dans cette thèse, nous étudions le comportement de circuits Josephson sous l'action de champs microondes forts. Les circuits Josephson dans le régime quantique sont une brique pour émuler une variété d'hamiltoniens, utiles pour traiter l'information quantique. Nous étudions ici le transmon, constitué d'une jonction Josephson et d'un condensateur en parallèle. À travers des simulations numériques et en comparant aux résultats expérimentaux, nous montrons que ces champs conduisent à une instabilité qui envoie le circuit sur des états qui ne sont plus confinés par le potentiel Josephson en cosinus. Quand le transmon occupe de tels états, le circuit se comporte comme si la jonction avait été remplacée par un interrupteur ouvert et toute non-linéarité est perdue, ce qui se traduit par des limitations sur les amplitudes maximales des hamiltoniens émulés. Dans une deuxième partie, nous proposons et étudions un circuit alternatif basé sur un transmon avec une inductance en parallèle, qui fournit un confinement harmonique. La dynamique de ce circuit est stable et bien capturée par un modèle moyennisé qui fournit alors un outil pratique pour l'analyse analytique ou les simulations rapides. Nous avons développé un nouvel outil de simulations modulaire et basé sur la théorie de FloquetMarkov pour permettre de simuler facilement d'autres circuits Josephson en évitant les limitations des analyses perturbatives. Enfin, nous étudions les propriétés d'une version asymétrique du Josephson Ring Modulator, un circuit actuellement utilisé pour l'amplification et la conversion, comme source de non-linéarité pour émuler les hamiltoniens d'interaction à deux et quatre photons requis pour l'encodage de l'information quantique sur des états de chats de Schrödinger.

Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos In this work we first present a protocol to build effective interactions between two cavity modes, considering a two-level atom under the action of classical fields. Bilinear Hamiltonians associated with parametric up- and down-conversion processes are derived, apart from nonlinear interactions associated with the degenerate parametric down-conversion process, resulting in the squeezing operation of a cavity mode. We also demonstrate how to construct nonlinear Hamiltonians related with a Kerr-type process for one or two cavity modes. In particular, we show how to implement, in the bimodal cavity, the Hamiltonian describing a two-specieis Bose-Einstein condensate in the two-mode approximation. Next, considering a two-level ion trapped in a cavity, under the action of classical amplification field, we show how to build an artificial reservoir for the electronic states of the ion. This reservoir is suited to protect nonstationary superpositions of the electronic levels, enabling us to measure the geometric phase acquired by these states under nonadiabatic evolutions of the system. Finally, we show how to construct squeezed reservoirs, either for a cavity mode or two-level atoms, by previously engineering an effective interaction between the atom(s) and the cavity mode which comprehends the simultaneous implementation of the Jaynes-Cummings and anti-Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonians. Nesta tese, apresentamos primeiramente um protocolo para a construção de interações efetivas entre dois modos de uma cavidade, através de um átomo de dois níveis sob a ação de campos clássicos. hamiltonianos bilineares associados à processos de conversões paramétricas ascendente e descendente de frequências foram obtidos, bem como hamiltonianos não-lineares associados à compressão paramétrica de um modo da cavidade. Mostramos também como construir hamiltonianos associados a processos não-lineares do tipo Kerr para um ou dois modos da cavidade. Em especial, mostramos como implementar, na cavidade bi-modal, o hamiltoniano que descreve um condensado de Bose-Einstein de duas espécies atômicas na aproximação de dois modos. Em seguida, considerando um íon de dois níveis aprisionado no interior de uma cavidade e submetido à ação de campos clássicos, mostramos como construir um reservatório artificial para os estados eletrônicos do íon. Este reservatório permite a proteção de superposições não estacionárias dos níveis eletrônicos, possibilitando a medida de fases geométricas por elas adquiridas mediante evoluções não adiabáticas do sistema. Por fim, mostramos como construir reservatórios comprimidos tanto para um modo da cavidade como para átomos de dois níveis, mediante a construção prévia de uma interação efetiva entre átomo(s) e modo que compreende a realização simultânea dos hamiltonianos de Jaynes-Cummings e anti-Jaynes-Cummings. Para tanto, recorremos a átomo(s) de três níveis sob a ação de campos clássicos.