One photon simultaneously excites two atoms in a ultrastrongly coupled light-matter system | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article One photon simultaneously excites two atoms in a ultrastrongly coupled light-matter system Akiyoshi Tomonaga, Roberto Stassi, Hiroto Mukai, Franco Nori, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3543813/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 17 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We experimentally investigate a superconducting circuit composed of two flux qubits ultrastrongly coupled to a common LC resonator. Owing to the large anharmonicity of the flux qubits, the system can be correctly described by a generalized Dicke Hamiltonian containing spin-spin interaction terms. In the experimentally measured spectrum, an avoided level crossing provides evidence of the exotic interaction that allows the simultaneous excitation of two artificial atoms by absorbing one photon from the resonator. This multi-atom ultrastrongly coupled system opens the door to studying nonlinear optics where the number of excitations is not conserved. This enables novel processes for quantum-information processing tasks on a chip. Physical sciences/Physics/Quantum physics/Qubits Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials for devices/Electronic devices Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementalmaterialOPTA.pdf Supplemental Material for “One photon simultaneously excites two atoms in ultrastrongly coupled light-matter” Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 17 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3543813","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":247646782,"identity":"88ca48e7-e614-4156-8568-438eba388750","order_by":0,"name":"Akiyoshi Tomonaga","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2316-7412","institution":"AIST","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Akiyoshi","middleName":"","lastName":"Tomonaga","suffix":""},{"id":247646783,"identity":"36b74342-1b6c-4587-b3b4-e89834be30e2","order_by":1,"name":"Roberto Stassi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Messina","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Roberto","middleName":"","lastName":"Stassi","suffix":""},{"id":247646784,"identity":"d903bb15-ea87-4e2c-83df-4d3179d9ffe4","order_by":2,"name":"Hiroto Mukai","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6689-7963","institution":"RIKEN","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hiroto","middleName":"","lastName":"Mukai","suffix":""},{"id":247646785,"identity":"017af912-9276-4672-be2c-725b013497f2","order_by":3,"name":"Franco Nori","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3682-7432","institution":"Theoretical Quantum Physics Laboratory, Cluster for Pioneering Research, RIKEN","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Franco","middleName":"","lastName":"Nori","suffix":""},{"id":247646786,"identity":"d6b97d85-265b-4f09-ae80-bd3b5a710b1a","order_by":4,"name":"Fumiki Yoshihara","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tokyo University of Science","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Fumiki","middleName":"","lastName":"Yoshihara","suffix":""},{"id":247646787,"identity":"58dc298d-f7af-4388-99db-287a09f2a2a9","order_by":5,"name":"Jaw-Shen Tsai","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"RIKEN","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jaw-Shen","middleName":"","lastName":"Tsai","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2023-11-02 11:52:28","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3543813/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3543813/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60589-5","type":"published","date":"2025-06-17T04:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":84861343,"identity":"f3bd6d8a-935b-42cf-9f5a-45a84e1ca773","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-06-18 07:06:45","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":628271,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MainarticleOPTA.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3543813/v1_covered_421c2021-dffb-4ecd-8424-bc0de17ef450.pdf"},{"id":49392426,"identity":"770d57ea-ba4a-4838-b3df-8c4e2fb5c61a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-10 01:51:15","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":892259,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSupplemental Material for “One photon simultaneously excites two atoms in ultrastrongly coupled light-matter”\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"SupplementalmaterialOPTA.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3543813/v1/2bcda50156732f24f40daa25.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"One photon simultaneously excites two atoms in a ultrastrongly coupled light-matter system","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"
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