Generation of a GHZ-type optical entangled coherent state without measurements

Typically, multipartite entangled coherent states are difficult to be extended and produced without measurement. We here propose a way to deterministically generate a GHZ (Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger)-type entangled coherent state of cavities, utilizing a system consisting of a single superconducting qutrit (i.e., a three-level quantum system) and multiple microwave cavities. Due to the use of only a coupler qutrit, the architecture of the circuit system is quite simple. More importantly, our proposal does not require measurement on the state of qutrit compared with the previous proposals. Since the qutrit's third energy level is not populated during the operation, decoherence from the higher energy level is greatly minimized. Furthermore, the entire operation time is independent of the number of microwave cavities. As an example, our numerical simulations show that high-fidelity generation of a three-cavity GHZ-type entangled coherent state is feasible with present circuit quantum electrodynamics technology. This proposal is universal and can be applied to other physical systems, such as microwave or optical cavities, which are coupled to a single natural or artificial three-level atom.