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Nonclassical photon-assisted transport in superconducting tunnel junctions

Matthias Hübler1, Juan Carlos Cuevas2,3, and Wolfgang Belzig1

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Phys. Rev. B 112, 214501 – Published 1 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/64gy-9vnc

Abstract

Advances in circuit quantum electrodynamics have enabled the generation of arbitrary nonclassical microwave states, enabling progress in physics. Here, we present a theoretical study of the electrical current in a Josephson tunnel junction interacting with a nonclassical electromagnetic environment. This allows us to generalize classical transport phenomena like photon-assisted tunneling and Shapiro steps to the quantum regime. We predict that the analysis of the supercurrent in such a setup enables the complete reconstruction of quantum states of the electromagnetic environment, something that is not possible with normal tunnel junctions.

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Phys. Rev. B 112, 214501– Published 1 December, 2025
  • Received 30 July 2025
  • Accepted 31 October 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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