Engineering multimode interactions in circuit quantum acoustodynamics

In recent years, important progress has been made towards encoding and processing quantum information in the large Hilbert space of bosonic modes. Mechanical resonators have several practical advantages for this purpose, because they confine many high-quality-factor modes into a small volume and can be easily integrated with different quantum systems. However, it is challenging to create direct interactions between different mechanical modes that can be used to emulate quantum gates. Here we demonstrate an in situ tunable beamsplitter-type interaction between several mechanical modes of a high-overtone bulk acoustic-wave resonator. The engineered interaction is mediated by a parametrically driven superconducting transmon qubit, and we show that it can be tailored to couple pairs or triplets of phononic modes. Furthermore, we use this interaction to demonstrate the Hong–Ou–Mandel effect between phonons. Our results lay the foundations for using phononic systems as quantum memories and platforms for quantum simulations. Quantum gates require controlled interactions between different degrees of freedom. A tunable coupling has now been demonstrated between the phonon modes of a mechanical resonator designed for storing and manipulating quantum information.