Decoherence in solid-state qubits

The interaction of solid-state qubits with environmental degrees of freedom strongly affects the qubit dynamics, and leads to decoherence. In quantum information processing with solid-state qubits, decoherence significantly limits the performances of such devices. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand the mechanisms that lead to decoherence. In this review, we discuss how decoherence affects two of the most successful realizations of solid-state qubits, namely, spin qubits and superconducting qubits. In the former, the qubit is encoded in the spin 1/2 of the electron, and it is implemented by confining the electron spin in a semiconductor quantum dot. Superconducting devices show quantum behaviour at low temperatures, and the qubit is encoded in the two lowest energy levels of a superconducting circuit. The electron spin in a quantum dot has two main decoherence channels, a (Markovian) phonon-assisted relaxation channel, due to the presence of a spin–orbit interaction, and a (non-Markovian) spin bath constituted by the spins of the nuclei in the quantum dot that interact with the electron spin via the hyperfine interaction. In a superconducting qubit, decoherence takes place as a result of fluctuations in the control parameters, such as bias currents, applied flux and bias voltages, and via losses in the dissipative circuit elements.     

Dynamical Suppression of Pure Amplitude Damping in Two-State Quantum Systems

Dynamical control of decoherence induced by the environment in a single quantum-bit system is investigated. We choose the suitable perturbations acting on the qubit system to decrease the decoherence due to pure amplitude damping. The scheme proposed here is based on the free-Hamiltonian-elimination technique and the paritykick technique, which concludes two homogeneous classical large-blue-detuned optical fields with different frequencies added to the qubit system. By applying this scheme, the decoherence can be completely suppressed.     

Dynamical Suppression of Pure Amplitude Damping in Two-State Quantum Systems

Dynamical control of decoherence induced by the environment in a single quantum-bit system is investigated. We choose the suitable perturbations acting on the qubit system to decrease the decoherence due to pure amplitude damping. The scheme proposed here is based on the free-Hamiltonian-elimination technique and the paritykick technique, which concludes two homogeneous classical large-blue-detuned optical fields with different frequencies added to the qubit system. By applying this scheme, the decoherence can be completely suppressed.     

Dynamic decoherence control of a solid-state nuclear-quadrupole qubit

We report on the application of a dynamic decoherence control pulse sequence on a nuclear-quadrupole transition in Pr3+:Y(2)SiO(5). Process tomography is used to analyze the effect of the pulse sequence. The pulse sequence was found to increase the decoherence time of the transition to over 30 seconds. Although the decoherence time was significantly increased, the population terms were found to rapidly decay on the application of the pulse sequence. The increase of this decay rate is attributed to inhomogeneity in the ensemble. Methods to circumvent this limit are discussed.     

二能级系统自发辐射的动力学抑制

研究了在二能级原子系统中有环境诱导的退相干的控制问题.通过对量子位系统施加适当的扰动可以减少由自发辐射引起的退相干.本文提出了一种新的基于频率位移技术和宇称反演技术的机制.这种机制可由两束均匀经典大失谐光场作用于原子来实现.通过应用这种机制,在存在自发辐射的情况下,可以有效地抑制退相干.     

Decoupling Bang-Bang Group for Adiabatic Decoherence Control in a Three-Level Atom

In this paper, we study the control problem of adiabatic decoherence in a three-level atom. We will find the decoupling bang-bang group for various configurations, including the V configuration and the cascade type of three-levelatom subjected to adiabatic decoherence. We also give the programs to design a sequence of periodic twinborn pulses to suppress the decoherence.     

Decoupling Bang-Bang Group for Adiabatic Decoherence Control in a Three-Level Atom

In this paper, we study the control problem of adiabatic decoherence in a three-level atom. We will find thedecoupling bang-bang group for various configurations, including the V configuration and the cascade type of three-level atom subjected to adiabatic decoherence. We also give the programs to design a sequence of periodic twinborn pulses to suppress the decoherence.     

Effect of mutual inductance coupling on superconducting flux qubit decoherence

In the Born-Markov approximation and two-level approximation, and using the Bloch-Redfield equation, the decoherence property of superconducting quantum circuit with a flux qubit is investigated. The influence ou decoherence of the mutual inductance coupling between the circuit components is complicated. The mutual inductance coupling between different loops will decrease the decoherence time. However, the mutual inductance coupling of the same loop, in a certain interval, will increase the decoherence time. Therefore, we can control the decoherence time by changing the mutual inductance parameters such as the strength and direction of coupling.     

Electron spin decoherence in isotope-enriched silicon

Silicon is promising for spin-based quantum computation because nuclear spins, a source of magnetic noise, may be eliminated through isotopic enrichment. Long spin decoherence times T2 have been measured in isotope-enriched silicon but come far short of the T2=2T1 limit. The effect of nuclear spins on T2 is well established. However, the effect of background electron spins from ever present residual phosphorus impurities in silicon can also produce significant decoherence. We study spin decoherence decay as a function of donor concentration, 29Si concentration, and temperature using cluster expansion techniques specifically adapted to the problem of a sparse dipolarly coupled electron spin bath. Our results agree with the existing experimental spin echo data in Si:P and establish the importance of background dopants as the ultimate decoherence mechanism in isotope-enriched silicon.     

Preservation of bipartite pseudoentanglement in solids using dynamical decoupling

A crucial challenge for future quantum technologies is to protect fragile entanglement against environment-induced decoherence. Here we demonstrate experimentally that dynamical decoupling can preserve bipartite pseudoentanglement in phosphorous donors in a silicon system. In particular, the lifetime of pseudoentangled states is extended from 0.4 μs in the absence of decoherence control to 30 μs in the presence of a two-flip dynamical decoupling sequence.     

Behavior of quantum coherence of Ξ-type four-level atom under bang-bang control

In this paper, we have studied the bang-bang (BB) decoupling scheme to suppress the phase decoherence, the amplitude decoherence and the general decoherence in a four-level Ξ-type atom system. The corresponding dynamical decoupling groups are given for designing the decoupling pulse sequences to suppress these three kinds of decoherence, respectively. Results show that in a proper time scale, the decoupling operations suppress the decoherence effectively. Especially in the ideal limits, it can suppress the decoherence completely. We also give the time scale in which the BB control works well. Numerical simulations show that, the larger cycle times N, the better effect of the BB decoupling operations under a fixed time scale.     

Decoherence in a system of many two-level atoms

I show that the decoherence in a system of degenerate two-level atoms interacting with a bosonic heat bath is for any number of atoms governed by a generalized Hamming distance (called "decoherence metric") between the superposed quantum states, with a time-dependent metric tensor that is specific for the heat bath. The decoherence metric allows for the complete characterization of the decoherence of all possible superpositions of many-particle states, and can be applied to minimize the overall decoherence in a quantum memory. For qubits which are far apart, the decoherence is given by a function describing single-qubit decoherence times the standard Hamming distance. I apply the theory to cold atoms in an optical lattice interacting with blackbody radiation.     

Suppression of Amplitude Decoherence in Arbitrary n-Level Atom in ≡-Configuration with Bang-Bang Controls

In this paper, we give Bang-Bang （BB） decoupling schemes to suppress the amplitude decoherence in the five-and six-level atom systems in ≡-configuration. We generalize this scheme to the arbitrary level atom system in ≡-configuration. The corresponding decoupling operators are given explicitly.     

Investigation of Decoherence of Superconducting Charge Qubit Entangled with the Environment

In the Born-Markov approximation, a method that calculates the energy relaxation time T ₁ and the decoherence time T ₂ of superconducting qubits is given by solving the set of Bloch-Redfield equations and considering the results of decoherence of a superconducting charge qubit. Compared to the spin-boson model, it not only contains the decoherence being caused by the dissipative environment, but also includes the decoherence being generated by the dissipative elements in a superconducting electronic circuit. Hence, it is good for studying the decoherence of superconducting qubits comprehensively.     

Dynamical suppression of 1/f noise processes in qubit systems

We investigate the capability of dynamical decoupling techniques to reduce decoherence from a realistic environment generating 1/f noise. The predominance of low frequency modes in the noise profile allows for decoherence scenarios where relatively slow control rates suffice for a drastic improvement. However, the actual figure of merit is very sensitive to the details of the dynamics, with decoupling performance which may deteriorate for non-Gaussian noise and/or high frequency working points. Our results are promising for robust solid-state qubits and beyond.     

Protecting Quantum State in Time‐Dependent Decoherence‐Free Subspaces Without the Rotating‐Wave Approximation

In this paper, we propose a scheme to protect quantum state by utilizing the time‐dependent decoherence‐free subspaces (TDFSs) theory without the rotating‐wave approximation (RWA). A coherent control is designed to drive the quantum system into the TDFSs, moreover, the singularities of the designed coherent control can be avoided by appropriately choosing the control parameters. From an experimental view point, the influences of variations of the control parameters and the imperfect initial state are discussed in detail. Numerical simulations confirm that the scheme can protect the quantum information from both the environmental decoherence and the control errors. In addition, by comparing with the scheme employing RWA, we show that the weak coherent control field is not suitable to create the TDFS, the counter‐rotating terms in the strong coherent control are helpful to protect the quantum information.     

Magnetic resonance realization of decoherence-free quantum computation

We report the realization, using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, of the first quantum computer that reliably executes a complete algorithm in the presence of strong decoherence. The computer is based on a quantum error avoidance code that protects against a class of multiple-qubit errors. The code stores two decoherence-free logical qubits in four noisy physical qubits. The computer successfully executes Grover's search algorithm in the presence of arbitrarily strong engineered decoherence. A control computer with no decoherence protection consistently fails under the same conditions.     

Enhanced decoherence in the vicinity of a phase transition

We study the decoherence of a spin-1/2 induced by an environment which is on the verge of a continuous phase transition. We consider spin environments described by the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic Heisenberg models on a square lattice. As is well known, these two-dimensional systems undergo a continuous phase transition at zero temperature, where the spins order spontaneously. For weak coupling of the central spin to these baths, we find that as one approaches the transition temperature, critical fluctuations make the central spin decohere faster. Furthermore, the decoherence is maximal at zero temperature as signaled by the divergence of the Markovian decoherence rate.     

Decoherence Induced by Discontinuous and Stochastic Unitary Evolution of Qubits in Quanturn Computers

A new kind of decoherence in quantum computer memory, called intrinsic decoherence, is investigated in some details, which is caused by discontinuous and stochastic unitary evolution of qubits in quantum computers on a sufficient short time scale. It is found that the intrinsic decoherence leads to quasi-periodic decaying oscillations of the state fidelity of qubits in the time evolution. Schemes to reduce the intrinsic decoherence are proposed.     

Dark-state polaritons in electromagnetically induced transparency

We identify form-stable coupled excitations of light and matter ("dark-state polaritons") associated with the propagation of quantum fields in electromagnetically induced transparency. The properties of dark-state polaritons such as the group velocity are determined by the mixing angle between light and matter components and can be controlled by an external coherent field as the pulse propagates. In particular, light pulses can be decelerated and "trapped" in which case their shape and quantum state are mapped onto metastable collective states of matter. Possible applications of this reversible coherent-control technique are discussed.