Quantum non-demolition dispersive readout of a superconducting artificial atom using large photon numbers

Reading out the state of superconducting artificial atoms typically relies on dispersive coupling to a readout resonator. For a given system noise temperature, increasing the circulating photon number bar{n} in the resonator enables a shorter measurement time and is therefore expected to reduce readout errors caused by spontaneous atom transitions. However, increasing bar{n} is generally observed to also increase these transition rates. Here we present a fluxonium artificial atom in which we measure an overall flat dependence of the transition rates between its first two states as a function of bar{n}, up to bar{n}approx200. Despite the fact that we observe the expected decrease of the dispersive shift with increasing readout power, the signal-to-noise ratio continuously improves with increasing bar{n}. Even without the use of a parametric amplifier, at bar{n}=74, we measure fidelities of 99% and 93% for feedback-assisted ground and excited state preparation, respectively.