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arXiv:1205.5142 · Physical Review A

Smooth optimal control with Floquet theory

Björn Bartels, Florian Mintert

Published Nov 15, 2013• 27 citations
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Abstract

This paper describes an approach to construct temporally shaped control pulses that drive a quantum system toward desired properties. A parametrization in terms of periodic functions with predefined frequencies permits us to realize a smooth, typically simple shape of the pulses; their optimization can be performed based on a variational analysis with Floquet theory. As we show with selected specific examples, this approach permits us to control the dynamics of interacting spins, such that gate operations and entanglement dynamics can be implemented with very high accuracy.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.88.052315

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This paper describes an approach to construct temporally shaped control pulses that drive a quantum system toward desired properties. A parametrization in terms of periodic functions with predefined frequencies permits us to realize a smooth, typically simple shape of the pulses; their optimization can be performed based on a variational analysis with Floquet theory. As we show with selected specific examples, this approach permits us to control the dynamics of interacting spins, such that gate operations and entanglement dynamics can be implemented with very high accuracy.
Abstract Quantum optimal control theory (QOCT) can be used to design the shape of electromagnetic pulses that implement operations on quantum devices. By using non-trivially shaped waveforms, gates can be made significantly faster than those built by concatenating monochromatic pulses. Recently, we applied this idea to the control of molecular spin qudits modeled with Schrödinger’s equation and showed it can speed up operations, helping mitigate the effects of decoherence (Castro et al 2022 Phys. Rev. Appl. 17 064028). However, short gate times require large optimal pulse amplitudes, which may not be experimentally accessible. Introducing bounds to the amplitudes then unavoidably leads to longer operation times, for which decoherence can no longer be neglected. Here, we study how to improve this procedure by applying QOCT on top of Lindblad’s equation, to design control pulses accounting for decoherence already in the optimization process. We define the control signal in terms of generic parameters, which permits the introduction of bounds and constraints. This is convenient, as amplitude and frequency limitations are inherent to waveform generators. The pulses that we obtain consistently enhance operation fidelities compared to those achieved with the optimization based on Schrödinger’s equation, demonstrating the flexibility and robustness of our method. The improvement is larger the shorter the spin coherence time T 2.
Abstract Floquet engineering consists in the modification of physical systems by the application of periodic time-dependent perturbations. The search for the shape of the periodic perturbation that best modifies the properties of a system in order to achieve some predefined metastable target behavior can be formulated as an optimal control problem. We discuss several ways to formulate and solve this problem. We present, as examples, some applications in the context of material science, although the methods discussed here are valid for any quantum system (from molecules and nanostructures to extended periodic and non periodic quantum materials). In particular, we show how one can achieve the manipulation of the Floquet pseudo-bandstructure of a transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer (MoS2).
Floquet driving uses periodic controls to tailor the behavior of quantum systems, with applications in quantum analogue simulation, sensing, and the protection of quantum information. Most approaches are designed using idealized, instantaneous pulses, even though experiments necessarily use pulses with finite duration and shape. This mismatch becomes especially challenging for interacting ddd-level systems, or qudits, because the number of possible controls grows rapidly with the number of levels. We develop a strong-drive Floquet theory that incorporates experimentally realizable pulse waveforms directly into the design of the effective interactions. The pulse duration, amplitude, and shape therefore become useful control parameters rather than sources of error. We show that systems with more than two levels offer capabilities unavailable in qubit systems: finite-duration driving can create new interactions that are absent from the original system and can substantially change its symmetries. We demonstrate these capabilities for interacting three-level systems. A single pulse transforms a diagonal interaction into a quantum spin-1 model dominated by nematic interactions, while pulse protocols motivated by trapped ultracold polar molecules produce models with enlarged SU(2)×U(1)SU(2)\times U(1)SU(2)×U(1) and SU(3)SU(3)SU(3) symmetries. Numerical tests of both short-time evolution and many-body dynamics confirm the accuracy of the resulting description. Our results provide a scalable analytical framework for designing finite-duration controls in interacting qudit platforms.
Floquet engineering in quantum simulation employs externally applied high-frequency pulses to dynamically design steady-state effective Hamiltonians. Such protocols can be used to enlarge the space of Hamiltonians but approximations often limit pulse profile shapes and therefore the space of available effective Hamiltonians. We consider a nonstroboscopic high-frequency expansion formalism for Floquet engineering. We generalize the pulse profiles available by rigorously keeping all necessary terms to lowest order in inverse frequency expansions used to derive the effective Hamiltonians. Our approach allows wide tunability in application of external driving fields. We apply our method to long-range interacting XXZ spin Hamiltonians. We model an example application where we derive conditions on specific pulse shapes to engineer effective Ising models from XXZ models. Our method allows the space of continuous pulse profiles, relevant to experimental control fields, to better and more accurately explore possible effective Hamiltonians available for Floquet engineering.
Achieving high-fidelity control of quantum systems is essential for realization of a practical quantum computer. Composite pulse sequences which suppress different types of errors can be nested to suppress a wide variety of errors but the result is often not optimal, especially in the presence of constraints such as bandwidth limitations. Robust smooth pulse shaping provides flexibility but obtaining such analytical pulse shapes is a nontrivial problem and choosing the appropriate parameters typically requires a numerical search in a high-dimensional space. In this work, we extend a previous analytical treatment of robust smooth pulses to allow the determination of pulse parameters without numerical search. We also show that the problem can be reduced to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations which allows for a more streamlined numerical treatment.
Controlling the decoherence induced by the interaction of quantum system with its environment is a fundamental challenge in quantum technology. Utilizing Floquet theory, we explore the constructive role of temporal periodic driving in suppressing decoherence of a spin-1/2 particle coupled to a spin bath. It is revealed that, accompanying the formation of a Floquet bound state in the quasienergy spectrum of the whole system including the system and its environment, the dissipation of the spin system can be inhibited and the system tends to coherently synchronize with the driving. It can be seen as an analog to the decoherence suppression induced by the structured environment in spatially periodic photonic crystal setting. Comparing with other decoherence control schemes, our protocol is robust against the fluctuation of control parameters and easy to realize in practice. It suggests a promising perspective of periodic driving in decoherence control.