Stimulated Emission of Signal Photons from Dark Matter Waves

Journal Article · 03 April 2024 · Physical Review Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.140801 · OSTI ID:2333036

Agrawal, Ankur ; Dixit, Akash V. ; Roy, Tanay ; Chakram, Srivatsan; He, Kevin ; Naik, Ravi K.; Schuster, David I.; Chou, Aaron

The manipulation of quantum states of light has resulted in significant advancements in both dark matter searches and gravitational wave detectors. Current dark matter searches operating in the microwave frequency range use nearly quantum-limited amplifiers. Future high frequency searches will use photon counting techniques to evade the standard quantum limit. We present a signal enhancement technique that utilizes a superconducting qubit to prepare a superconducting microwave cavity in a nonclassical Fock state and stimulate the emission of a photon from a dark matter wave. By initializing the cavity in an $|n=4⟩$ Fock state, we demonstrate a quantum enhancement technique that increases the signal photon rate and hence also the dark matter scan rate each by a factor of 2.78. Using this technique, we conduct a dark photon search in a band around 5.965 GHz ( $24.67\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{eV}$ ), where the kinetic mixing angle $\epsilon \ge 4.35\times {10}^{-13}$ is excluded at the 90% confidence level. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-07CH11359
• OSTI ID: 2333036
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 14 Vol. 132; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Publisher: American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English