Electromagnetically induced transparency using a superconducting artificial atom with optimized level anharmonicity

We propose a theoretical scheme to implement electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) using an artificial atom of superconducting circuit. Allowed by the selection rule, two kinds of interactions between the atom and driving fields can be obtained, in which we focus on the leakage effect. In terms of dark-state mechanism in generating EIT, the leakage could destroy the EIT considerably. By removing the leakage effect in an optimized three-level atom, we consider a realization of EIT through the technique of density matrix. Furthermore, another effective way to optimize the level anharmonicity is analyzed in a dressing-state method. The scheme could provide a promising approach for experimentally improving EIT with the artificial atoms. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.