Quantum thermometry using the ac Stark shift within the Rabi model

Abstract

A quantum two-level system coupled to a harmonic oscillator represents a ubiquitous physical system. New experiments in circuit QED and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) achieve unprecedented coupling strength at large detuning between qubit and oscillator, thus requiring a theoretical treatment beyond the Jaynes-Cummings model. Here we present a new method for describing the qubit dynamics in this regime, based on an oscillator correlation function expansion of a non-Markovian master equation in the polaron frame. Our technique yields a new numerical method as well as a succinct approximate expression for the qubit dynamics. These expressions are valid in the experimentally interesting regime of strong coupling at low temperature. We obtain a new expression for the ac Stark shift and show that this enables practical and precise qubit thermometry of an oscillator.