Spontaneous emission of a three-level artificial atom in a one-dimensional open waveguide

Abstract We study the dynamical and spectral characteristics of a quantum three-level ladder system, interacting with a continuous electromagnetic field in one-dimensional open waveguide. Common realization of such systems is a waveguide QED setup - a superconducting artificial atom (transmon), coupled to an open microwave transmission line. We derive an analytical solution for spontaneous emission of initially excited atom, and use it to study the probability of state detection and spectral density of output photon states. We find that for strong coupling of transmon to a waveguide emitted photons show correlation in frequency and can have the same energies, even if the three-level system is anharmonic.