Sequential nonabsorbing microwave single-photon detector

Abstract

We propose a nonabsorbing microwave single-photon detector that uses an artificial atom as a coherent interaction mediator between a traveling photon and a high-Q resonator, fully exploiting the knowledge of the photon's arrival time. Our proposal can be implemented with the current level of technology and achieves distinguishability (probability of distinguishing between zero and 1 photon) in excess of 98% for realistic parameters. This is better than any of the similar detector proposals, even the ones using several artificial atoms.