Dynamics of the quantum Duffing oscillator in the driving induced bistable regime

We investigate the non-linear response of an anharmonic monostable quantum mechanical resonator to strong external periodic driving. The driving thereby induces an effective bistability in which resonant tunneling can be identified. Within the framework of a Floquet analysis, an effective Floquet-Born-Markovian master equation with time-independent coefficients can be established which can be solved straightforwardly. Various effects including resonant tunneling and multi-photon transitions will be described. Our model finds applications in nano-electromechanical devices such as vibrating suspended nano-wires as well as in non-destructive read-out procedures for superconducting quantum bits involving the non-linear response of the read-out SQUID. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.