Sisyphus effects in a microwave-excited flux-qubit resonator system

Sisyphus amplification, familiar from quantum optics, has recently been reported as a mechanism to explain the enhanced quality factor of a classical resonant (tank) circuit coupled to a superconducting flux qubit. Here we present data from a coupled system, comprising a quantum mechanical rf SQUID (flux qubit) reactively monitored by an ultrahigh quality factor noise driven rf resonator and excited by microwaves. The system exhibits enhancement of the tank-circuit resonance, bringing it significantly closer (within 1%) to the lasing limit, than previously reported results.