Observation of the Bloch-Siegert Shift in a Qubit-Oscillator System in the Ultrastrong Coupling Regime

We measure the dispersive energy-level shift of an LC resonator magnetically coupled to a superconducting qubit, which clearly shows that our system operates in the ultrastrong coupling regime. The large mutual kinetic inductance provides a coupling energy of ≈0.82  GHz, requiring the addition of counter-rotating-wave terms in the description of the Jaynes-Cummings model. We find a 50 MHz Bloch-Siegert shift when the qubit is in its symmetry point, fully consistent with our analytical model.