Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Engineering magnon lasing in full quantum regime

Yan Liu and Jiahua Li*

  • *Contact author: huajia_li@163.com

Phys. Rev. Research 8, 033088 – Published 22 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1mvk-5n9j

Abstract

We develop an analytical approach for steady-state normal-ordered magnon moments (NOMMs) in a driven-dissipative magnon-qubit system with coherent and dissipative couplings, and further benchmark it against the full quantum master-equation simulations of mean magnon number and second-order intensity correlation function, g(2)(0). Specifically, we first show that strong coherent coupling alone can produce an intermediate-pump magnon-lasing-like emission window, identified by a small-signal stability criterion and characterized by near-Poissonian statistics [g(2)(0)≃1] and pronounced linewidth narrowing. For dissipative coupling alone, the magnon emission exhibits nonclassical antibunching [g(2)(0)<1] at the optimal mean magnon number and features a large pump-tunable spectral linewidth. In the hybrid dissipative and weak-coherent-coupling regime, the dissipative channel can substantially enhance the steady-state mean magnon number while simultaneously inducing strong magnon antibunching, with g(2)(0)≪1. The results obtained here may find potential applications in microwave-magnonic and related hybrid quantum platforms, and the analytical NOMM method could also provide a route to treating other driven open boson-fermion systems.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (84)

  1. Y. Tabuchi, S. Ishino, A. Noguchi, T. Ishikawa, R. Yamazaki, K. Usami, and Y. Nakamura, Coherent coupling between a ferromagnetic magnon and a superconducting qubit, Science 349, 405 (2015).
  2. Y. Tabuchi, S. Ishino, A. Noguchi, T. Ishikawa, R. Yamazaki, K. Usami, and Y. Nakamura, Quantum magnonics: The magnon meets the superconducting qubit, C. R. Phys. 17, 729 (2016).
  3. S. P. Wolski, D. Lachance-Quirion, Y. Tabuchi, S. Kono, A. Noguchi, K. Usami, and Y. Nakamura, Dissipation-based quantum sensing of magnons with a superconducting qubit, Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 117701 (2020).
  4. D. Lachance-Quirion, Y. Tabuchi, A. Gloppe, K. Usami, and Y. Nakamura, Hybrid quantum systems based on magnonics, Appl. Phys. Express 12, 070101 (2019).
  5. A. Narla, S. Shankar, M. Hatridge, Z. Leghtas, K. M. Sliwa, E. Zalys-Geller, S. O. Mundhada, W. Pfaff, L. Frunzio, R. J. Schoelkopf, and M. H. Devoret, Robust concurrent remote entanglement between two superconducting qubits, Phys. Rev. X 6, 031036 (2016).
  6. K. Inomata, Z. Lin, K. Koshino, W. D. Oliver, J.-S. Tsai, T. Yamamoto, and Y. Nakamura, Single microwave-photon detector using an artificial Λ-type three-level system, Nat. Commun. 7, 12303 (2016).
  7. S. Kono, K. Koshino, Y. Tabuchi, A. Noguchi, and Y. Nakamura, Quantum non-demolition detection of an itinerant microwave photon, Nat. Phys. 14, 546 (2018).
  8. M. Kristen, A. Schneider, A. Stehli, T. Wolz, S. Danilin, H. S. Ku, J. Long, X. Wu, R. Lake, D. P. Pappas, A. V. Ustinov, and M. Weides, Amplitude and frequency sensing of microwave fields with a superconducting transmon qudit, npj Quantum Inf. 6, 57 (2020).
  9. D. Lachance-Quirion, Y. Tabuchi, S. Ishino, A. Noguchi, T. Ishikawa, R. Yamazaki, and Y. Nakamura, Resolving quanta of collective spin excitations in a millimeter-sized ferromagnet, Sci. Adv. 3, e1603150 (2017).
  10. D. Lachance-Quirion, S. P. Wolski, Y. Tabuchi, S. Kono, K. Usami, and Y. Nakamura, Entanglement-based single-shot detection of a single magnon with a superconducting qubit, Science 367, 425 (2020).
  11. D. Xu, X.-K. Gu, H.-K. Li, Y.-C. Weng, Y.-P. Wang, J. Li, H. Wang, S.-Y. Zhu, and J. Q. You, Quantum control of a single magnon in a macroscopic spin system, Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 193603 (2023).
  12. S. Rani, X. Cao, A. E. Baptista, A. Hoffmann, and W. Pfaff, High-dynamic-range quantum sensing of magnons and their dynamics using a superconducting qubit, Phys. Rev. Appl. 23, 064032 (2025).
  13. H. Y. Yuan, Y. Cao, A. Kamra, R. A. Duine, and P. Yan, Quantum magnonics: When magnon spintronics meets quantum information science, Phys. Rep. 965, 1 (2022).
  14. X. Zhang, A review of common materials for hybrid quantum magnonics, Mater. Today Electron. 5, 100044 (2023).
  15. Y.-C. Weng, D. Xu, Z. Chen, L.-Z. Tan, X.-K. Gu, J. Li, H.-F. Yu, S.-Y. Zhu, X. Hu, F. Nori, and J. Q. You, Magnon squeezing in the quantum regime, Nat. Commun. 17, 2679 (2026).
  16. Z.-Y. Jin and J. Jing, Magnon blockade in magnon-qubit systems, Phys. Rev. A 108, 053702 (2023).
  17. O. Astafiev, K. Inomata, A. O. Niskanen, T. Yamamoto, Y. A. Pashkin, Y. Nakamura, and J. S. Tsai, Single artificial-atom lasing, Nature (London) 449, 588 (2007).
  18. S. André, V. Brosco, A. Shnirman, and G. Schön, Phase diffusion and locking in single-qubit lasers, Phys. Rev. A 79, 053848 (2009).
  19. S. André, P.-Q. Jin, V. Brosco, J. H. Cole, A. Romito, A. Shnirman, and G. Schön, Single-qubit lasing in the strong-coupling regime, Phys. Rev. A 82, 053802 (2010).
  20. F. Verstraete, M. M. Wolf, and J. I. Cirac, Quantum computation and quantum-state engineering driven by dissipation, Nat. Phys. 5, 633 (2009).
  21. S. Diehl, A. Micheli, A. Kantian, B. Kraus, H. P. Büchler, and P. Zoller, Quantum states and phases in driven open quantum systems with cold atoms, Nat. Phys. 4, 878 (2008).
  22. P. M. Harrington, E. J. Mueller, and K. W. Murch, Engineered dissipation for quantum information science, Nat. Rev. Phys. 4, 660 (2022).
  23. M. Harder, Y. Yang, B. M. Yao, C. H. Yu, J. W. Rao, Y. S. Gui, R. L. Stamps, and C.-M. Hu, Level attraction due to dissipative magnon-photon coupling, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 137203 (2018).
  24. Y.-P. Wang, J. W. Rao, Y. Yang, P.-C. Xu, Y. S. Gui, B. M. Yao, J. Q. You, and C.-M. Hu, Nonreciprocity and unidirectional invisibility in cavity magnonics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 127202 (2019).
  25. P.-C. Xu, J. W. Rao, Y. S. Gui, X. Jin, and C.-M. Hu, Cavity-mediated dissipative coupling of distant magnetic moments: Theory and experiment, Phys. Rev. B 100, 094415 (2019).
  26. Y.-P. Wang and C.-M. Hu, Dissipative couplings in cavity magnonics, J. Appl. Phys. 127, 130901 (2020).
  27. Z.-Q. Wang, Z.-Y. Wang, Y.-P. Wang, and J. Q. You, Single-mode magnon-polariton lasing and amplification controlled by dissipative coupling, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 186704 (2025).
  28. M. Harder, B. M. Yao, Y. S. Gui, and C.-M. Hu, Coherent and dissipative cavity magnonics, J. Appl. Phys. 129, 201101 (2021).
  29. J. Shuai, B. Kim, J. Kim, R. Bhavsar, and S.-K. Kim, Reconfigurable control of coherence, dissipation, and nonreciprocity in cavity magnonics, Sci. Rep. 15, 30893 (2025).
  30. Z.-Y. Jin and J. Jing, Stabilizing a single-magnon state by optimizing magnon blockade, Phys. Rev. A 110, 012459 (2024).
  31. C. Kittel, On the theory of ferromagnetic resonance absorption, Phys. Rev. 73, 155 (1948).
  32. A. A. Serga, A. V. Chumak, and B. Hillebrands, YIG magnonics, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43, 264002 (2010).
  33. B. Zare Rameshti, S. Viola Kusminskiy, J. A. Haigh, K. Usami, D. Lachance-Quirion, Y. Nakamura, C.-M. Hu, H. X. Tang, G. E. Bauer, and Y. M. Blanter, Cavity magnonics, Phys. Rep. 979, 1 (2022).
  34. Y. Tabuchi, S. Ishino, T. Ishikawa, R. Yamazaki, K. Usami, and Y. Nakamura, Hybridizing ferromagnetic magnons and microwave photons in the quantum limit, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 083603 (2014).
  35. X. Zhang, C.-L. Zou, L. Jiang, and H. X. Tang, Strongly coupled magnons and cavity microwave photons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 156401 (2014).
  36. M. Goryachev, W. G. Farr, D. L. Creedon, Y. Fan, M. Kostylev, and M. E. Tobar, High-cooperativity cavity QED with magnons at microwave frequencies, Phys. Rev. Appl. 2, 054002 (2014).
  37. D. Zhang, X.-M. Wang, T.-F. Li, X.-Q. Luo, W. Wu, F. Nori, and J. Q. You, Cavity quantum electrodynamics with ferromagnetic magnons in a small yttrium-iron-garnet sphere, npj Quantum Inf. 1, 15014 (2015).
  38. R. G. E. Morris, A. F. van Loo, S. Kosen, and A. D. Karenowska, Strong coupling of magnons in a YIG sphere to photons in a planar superconducting resonator in the quantum limit, Sci. Rep. 7, 11511 (2017).
  39. H. Huebl, C. W. Zollitsch, J. Lotze, F. Hocke, M. Greifenstein, A. Marx, R. Gross, and S. T. B. Goennenwein, High cooperativity in coupled microwave resonator ferrimagnetic insulator hybrids, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 127003 (2013).
  40. A. Ghirri, C. Bonizzoni, M. Maksutoglu, A. Mercurio, O. Di Stefano, S. Savasta, and M. Affronte, Ultrastrong magnon-photon coupling achieved by magnetic films in contact with superconducting resonators, Phys. Rev. Appl. 20, 024039 (2023).
  41. B. Bhoi, T. Cliff, I. S. Maksymov, M. Kostylev, R. Aiyar, N. Venkataramani, S. Prasad, and R. L. Stamps, Study of photon–magnon coupling in a YIG-film split-ring resonant system, J. Appl. Phys. 116, 243906 (2014).
  42. M. Kounalakis, G. E. W. Bauer, and Y. M. Blanter, Analog quantum control of magnonic cat states on a chip by a superconducting qubit, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 037205 (2022).
  43. Y. Wang, W. Xiong, Z. Xu, G.-Q. Zhang, and J.-Q. You, Dissipation-induced nonreciprocal magnon blockade in a magnon-based hybrid system, Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 65, 260314 (2022).
  44. Y.-W. Lu, J.-F. Liu, R. Li, H. Tan, and Y. Li, Fano effect induced giant and robust enhancement of photon correlations in cavity QED systems, Opt. Lett. 47, 3411 (2022).
  45. Y.-P. Wang, G.-Q. Zhang, D. Zhang, X.-Q. Luo, W. Xiong, S.-P. Wang, T.-F. Li, C.-M. Hu, and J. Q. You, Magnon Kerr effect in a strongly coupled cavity-magnon system, Phys. Rev. B 94, 224410 (2016).
  46. Y.-P. Wang, G.-Q. Zhang, D. Zhang, T.-F. Li, C.-M. Hu, and J. Q. You, Bistability of cavity magnon polaritons, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 057202 (2018).
  47. G. Zhang, Y. Wang, and J. You, Theory of the magnon Kerr effect in cavity magnonics, Sci. China Phys. Mech. Astron. 62, 987511 (2019).
  48. A. A. Sokolova, G. P. Fedorov, E. V. Il’ichev, and O. V. Astafiev, Single-atom maser with an engineered circuit for population inversion, Phys. Rev. A 103, 013718 (2021).
  49. C. Navarrete-Benlloch, J. J. García-Ripoll, and D. Porras, Inducing nonclassical lasing via periodic drivings in circuit quantum electrodynamics, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 193601 (2014).
  50. E. del Valle and F. P. Laussy, Regimes of strong light-matter coupling under incoherent excitation, Phys. Rev. A 84, 043816 (2011).
  51. P. Bertet, I. Chiorescu, G. Burkard, K. Semba, C. J. P. M. Harmans, D. P. DiVincenzo, and J. E. Mooij, Dephasing of a superconducting qubit induced by photon noise, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 257002 (2005).
  52. K. Kakuyanagi, T. Meno, S. Saito, H. Nakano, K. Semba, H. Takayanagi, F. Deppe, and A. Shnirman, Dephasing of a superconducting flux qubit, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 047004 (2007).
  53. D. V. Averin, K. Xu, Y. P. Zhong, C. Song, H. Wang, and S. Han, Suppression of dephasing by qubit motion in superconducting circuits, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 010501 (2016).
  54. Q. Guo, S.-B. Zheng, J. Wang, C. Song, P. Zhang, K. Li, W. Liu, H. Deng, K. Huang, D. Zheng, X. Zhu, H. Wang, C.-Y. Lu, and J.-W. Pan, Dephasing-insensitive quantum information storage and processing with superconducting qubits, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 130501 (2018).
  55. S. Pannir-Sivajothi, J. A. Campos-Gonzalez-Angulo, L. A. Martínez-Martínez, S. Sinha, and J. Yuen-Zhou, Driving chemical reactions with polariton condensates, Nat. Commun. 13, 1645 (2022).
  56. Y. Zhu, D. J. Gauthier, S. E. Morin, Q. Wu, H. J. Carmichael, and T. W. Mossberg, Vacuum Rabi splitting as a feature of linear-dispersion theory: Analysis and experimental observations, Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 2499 (1990).
  57. H. J. Carmichael, R. J. Brecha, M. G. Raizen, H. J. Kimble, and P. R. Rice, Subnatural linewidth averaging for coupled atomic and cavity-mode oscillators, Phys. Rev. A 40, 5516 (1989).
  58. M. G. Raizen, R. J. Thompson, R. J. Brecha, H. J. Kimble, and H. J. Carmichael, Normal-mode splitting and linewidth averaging for two-state atoms in an optical cavity, Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 240 (1989).
  59. P. Meystre and M. Sargent III, Elements of Quantum Optics, 4th ed. (Springer, Berlin, 2007).
  60. D. P. S. McCutcheon, Optical signatures of non-Markovian behavior in open quantum systems, Phys. Rev. A 93, 022119 (2016).
  61. F. Cadiz, E. Courtade, C. Robert, G. Wang, Y. Shen, H. Cai, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, H. Carrere, D. Lagarde, M. Manca, T. Amand, P. Renucci, S. Tongay, X. Marie, and B. Urbaszek, Excitonic linewidth approaching the homogeneous limit in MoS2-based van der Waals heterostructures, Phys. Rev. X 7, 021026 (2017).
  62. Y. Mu and C. M. Savage, One-atom lasers, Phys. Rev. A 46, 5944 (1992).
  63. G. Zhao, Y. Wang, and X.-F. Qian, Driven dissipative quantum dynamics in a cavity magnon-polariton system, Phys. Rev. B 104, 134423 (2021).
  64. P. Winkel, K. Borisov, L. Grünhaupt, D. Rieger, M. Spiecker, F. Valenti, A. V. Ustinov, W. Wernsdorfer, and I. M. Pop, Implementation of a transmon qubit using superconducting granular aluminum, Phys. Rev. X 10, 031032 (2020).
  65. P. Andrich, C. F. de las Casas, X. Liu, H. L. Bretscher, J. R. Berman, F. J. Heremans, P. F. Nealey, and D. D. Awschalom, Long-range spin wave mediated control of defect qubits in nanodiamonds, npj Quantum Inf. 3, 28 (2017).
  66. A. Metelmann and A. A. Clerk, Nonreciprocal photon transmission and amplification via reservoir engineering, Phys. Rev. X 5, 021025 (2015).
  67. F. Reiter and A. S. Sørensen, Effective operator formalism for open quantum systems, Phys. Rev. A 85, 032111 (2012).
  68. S. B. Jäger, T. Schmit, G. Morigi, M. J. Holland, and R. Betzholz, Lindblad master equations for quantum systems coupled to dissipative bosonic modes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 063601 (2022).
  69. S. Mukherjee, D. Mogilevtsev, G. Y. Slepyan, T. H. Doherty, R. R. Thomson, and N. Korolkova, Dissipatively coupled waveguide networks for coherent diffusive photonics, Nat. Commun. 8, 1909 (2017).
  70. Z.-Q. Wang, Y.-P. Wang, J. Yao, R.-C. Shen, W.-J. Wu, J. Qian, J. Li, S.-Y. Zhu, and J. Q. You, Giant spin ensembles in waveguide magnonics, Nat. Commun. 13, 7580 (2022).
  71. O. Astafiev, A. M. Zagoskin, A. A. Abdumalikov, Y. A. Pashkin, T. Yamamoto, K. Inomata, Y. Nakamura, and J. S. Tsai, Resonance fluorescence of a single artificial atom, Science 327, 840 (2010).
  72. B.-Y. Wu, Y.-T. Cheng, K.-T. Lin, F. Aziz, C.-X. Run, K.-M. Hsieh, J.-C. Liu, K.-V. Rangdhol, Y.-Y. Yeung, S. Yang, Q. Shao, X. Wang, Y.-Y. Zhao, A. F. Kockum, G.-D. Lin, F. Nori, and I.-C. Hoi, Microwave interference between a spin ensemble and its mirror image, Phys. Rev. A 113, 053720 (2026).
  73. P. Forn-Díaz, J. García-Ripoll, B. Peropadre, J.-L. Orgiazzi, M. Yurtalan, R. Belyansky, C. Wilson, and A. Lupascu, Ultrastrong coupling of a single artificial atom to an electromagnetic continuum in the nonperturbative regime, Nat. Phys. 13, 39 (2017).
  74. C. W. Gardiner and M. J. Collett, Input and output in damped quantum systems: Quantum stochastic differential equations and the master equation, Phys. Rev. A 31, 3761 (1985).
  75. A. A. Clerk, M. H. Devoret, S. M. Girvin, F. Marquardt, and R. J. Schoelkopf, Introduction to quantum noise, measurement, and amplification, Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 1155 (2010).
  76. C. W. Gardiner and P. Zoller, Quantum Noise: A Handbook of Markovian and Non-Markovian Quantum Stochastic Methods with Applications to Quantum Optics (Springer, Berlin, 2004).
  77. D. F. Walls and G. J. Milburn, Quantum Optics, 2nd ed (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2008).
  78. K. Lalumière, B. C. Sanders, A. F. van Loo, A. Fedorov, A. Wallraff, and A. Blais, Input-output theory for waveguide QED with an ensemble of inhomogeneous atoms, Phys. Rev. A 88, 043806 (2013).
  79. D. Bozyigit, C. Lang, L. Steffen, J. M. Fink, C. Eichler, M. Baur, R. Bianchetti, P. J. Leek, S. Filipp, M. P. da Silva, A. Blais, and A. Wallraff, Antibunching of microwave-frequency photons observed in correlation measurements using linear detectors, Nat. Phys. 7, 154 (2011).
  80. C. Lang, D. Bozyigit, C. Eichler, L. Steffen, J. M. Fink, A. A. Abdumalikov, M. Baur, S. Filipp, M. P. da Silva, A. Blais, and A. Wallraff, Observation of resonant photon blockade at microwave frequencies using correlation function measurements, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 243601 (2011).
  81. M. O. Scully and M. S. Zubairy, Quantum Optics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997).
  82. H. Haken, Laser Theory (Springer, Berlin, 1984).
  83. P. R. Rice and H. J. Carmichael, Photon statistics of a cavity-QED laser: A comment on the laser–phase-transition analogy, Phys. Rev. A 50, 4318 (1994).
  84. J. McKeever, A. Boca, A. D. Boozer, J. R. Buck, and H. J. Kimble, Experimental realization of a one-atom laser in the regime of strong coupling, Nature (London) 425, 268 (2003).

Outline

Information

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation