Spectroscopy of flux-driven Kerr parametric oscillators by reflection coefficient measurement

We report the spectroscopic characterization of a Kerr parametric oscillator (KPO) based on the measurement of its reflection coefficient under a two-photon drive induced by flux modulation. The measured reflection spectra show good agreement with numerical simulations in terms of their dependence on the two-photon drive amplitude. The spectra can be interpreted as changes in system’s eigenenergies, transition matrix elements, and the population of the eigenstates, although the linewidth of the resonance structure is not fully explained. We also show that the drive-amplitude dependence of the spectra can be explained analytically by using the concepts of Rabi splitting and the Stark shift. By comparing the experimentally obtained spectra with theory, we show that the two-photon drive amplitude at the device can be precisely determined, which is important for the application of KPOs in quantum information processing.