Tunable superconducting qudit mediated by microwave photons

We have investigated the time-domain characteristics of the Autler-Townes doublet in a superconducting circuit. The transition probabilities between the ground state and the Autler-Townes doublet states are shown to be controlled in a phase-coherent manner using a well-known microwave pulse pattern technique. The experimental results are well explained by a numerical simulation based on the Markovian master equation. Our result indicates that the Autler-Townes doublet states might be useful as a tunable qudit for implementation of quantum information processing, in particular as a multivalued quantum logic element.