Strong-field effects in the Rabi oscillations of the superconducting phase qubit

Rabi oscillations have been observed in many superconducting devices, and represent prototypical logic operations for quantum bits (qubits) in a quantum computer. We use a three-level multiphoton analysis to understand the behavior of the superconducting phase qubit (current-biased Josephson junction) at high microwave drive power. Analytical and numerical results for the ac Stark shift, single-photon Rabi frequency, and two-photon Rabi frequency are compared to measurements made on a dc SQUID phase qubit with Nb/AlOx/Nb tunnel junctions. Good agreement is found between theory and experiment.