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arXiv:1605.08826 · Physical Review A

Dynamics of a two-level system under strong driving: Quantum-gate optimization based on Floquet theory

Chunqing Deng, Feiruo Shen, Sahel Ashhab, Adrian Lupaşcu

Published Sep 27, 2016• 45 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We consider the dynamics of a two-level system (qubit) driven by strong and short resonant pulses in the framework of Floquet theory. First we derive analytical expressions for the quasienergies and Floquet states of the driven system. If the pulse amplitude varies very slowly, the system adiabatically follows the instantaneous Floquet states, which acquire dynamical phases that depend on the evolution of the quasienergies over time. The difference between the phases acquired by the two Floquet states corresponds to a qubit state rotation, generalizing the notion of Rabi oscillations to the case of large driving amplitudes. If the pulse amplitude changes very fast, the evolution is nonadiabatic, with transitions taking place between the Floquet states. We quantify and analyze the nonadiabatic transitions during the pulse by employing adiabatic perturbation theory and exact numerical simulations. We find that, for certain combinations of pulse rise and fall times and maximum driving amplitude, a destructive interference effect leads to a remarkably strong suppression of transitions between the Floquet states. This effect provides the basis of a quantum control protocol, which we name Floquet interference efficient suppression of transitions in the adiabatic basis (FIESTA), that can be used to design ultrafast high-fidelity single-qubit quantum gates.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.94.032323

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•Aug 24, 2015•1 citation
We consider the dynamics of a two-level system (qubit) driven by strong and short resonant pulses in the framework of Floquet theory. First we derive analytical expressions for the quasienergies and Floquet states of the driven system. If the pulse amplitude varies very slowly, the system adiabatically follows the instantaneous Floquet states, which acquire dynamical phases that depend on the evolution of the quasienergies over time. The difference between the phases acquired by the two Floquet states corresponds to a qubit state rotation, generalizing the notion of Rabi oscillations to the case of large driving amplitudes. If the pulse amplitude changes very fast, the evolution is nonadiabatic, with transitions taking place between the Floquet states. We quantify and analyze the nonadiabatic transitions during the pulse by employing adiabatic perturbation theory and exact numerical simulations. We find that, for certain combinations of pulse rise and fall times and maximum driving amplitude, a destructive interference effect leads to a remarkably strong suppression of transitions between the Floquet states. This effect provides the basis of a quantum control protocol, which we name Floquet interference efficient suppression of transitions in the adiabatic basis (FIESTA), that can be used to design ultrafast high-fidelity single-qubit quantum gates.
We present experiments on the driven dynamics of a two-level superconducting artificial atom. The driving strength reaches 4.78 GHz, significantly exceeding the transition frequency of 2.288 GHz. The observed dynamics is described in terms of quasienergies and quasienergy states, in agreement with Floquet theory. In addition, we observe the role of pulse shaping in the dynamics, as determined by nonadiabatic transitions between Floquet states, and we implement subnanosecond single-qubit operations. These results pave the way to quantum control using strong driving with applications in quantum technologies.
We study the dissipative dynamics of a two-level system (TLS) exposed to strong ac driving. By combining Floquet theory with Van Vleck perturbation theory in the TLS tunneling matrix element, we diagonalize the time-dependent Hamiltonian and provide corrections to the renormalized Rabi frequency of the TLS, which are valid for both a biased and unbiased TLS and go beyond the known high-frequency and rotating-wave results. In order to mimic environmental influences on the TLS, we couple the system weakly to a thermal bath and solve analytically the corresponding Floquet-Bloch-Redfield master equation. We give a closed expression for the relaxation and dephasing rates of the TLS and discuss their behavior under variation of the driving amplitude. Further, we examine the robustness of coherent destruction of tunneling (CDT) and driving-induced tunneling oscillations (DITO). We show that also for a moderate driving frequency an almost complete suppression of tunneling can be achieved for short times and demonstrate the sensitiveness of DITO to a change of the external parameters.
We study the dissipative dynamics of a two-level system (TLS) exposed to strong ac driving. By combing Floquet theory with Van Vleck perturbation theory in the TLS tunneling matrix element, we diagonalize the time-dependent Hamiltonian and provide corrections to the renormalized Rabi frequency of the TLS, which are valid for both a biased and unbiased TLS and go beyond the known high-frequency and rotating-wave results. In order to mimic environmental influences on the TLS, we couple the system weakly to a thermal bath and solve analytically the corresponding Floquet-Bloch-Redfield master equation. We give a closed expression for the relaxation and dephasing rates of the TLS and discuss their behavior under variation of the driving amplitude. Further, we examine the robustness of coherent destruction of tunneling (CDT) and driving-induced tunneling oscillations (DITO). We show that also for a moderate driving frequency an almost complete suppression of tunneling can be achieved for short times and demonstrate the sensitiveness of DITO to a change of the external parameters.
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.
This Letter demonstrates control over multiphoton absorption processes in driven two-level systems, which include, for example, superconducting qubits or laser-irradiated graphene, through spectral shaping of the driving pulse. Starting from calculations based on Floquet theory, we use differential evolution, a general purpose optimization algorithm, to find the Fourier coefficients of the driving function that suppress a given multiphoton resonance in the strong field regime. We show that the suppression of the transition probability is due to the coherent superposition of high-order Fourier harmonics which closes the dynamical gap between the Floquet states of the two-level system.
This thesis discusses a series of experimental and theoretical studies on fast control and decoherence in superconducting quantum circuits. These two subjects are complementary aspects of the problem of improving the gate fidelities in quantum information processing devices based on superconducting circuits. \n \nIn the first part of this thesis, we present experiments on fast control of a superconducting flux qubit using strong driving. We explore driving with short pulses and a driving strength significantly exceeding the transition frequency. The observed dynamics is described in terms of quasienergies and quasienergy states, in agreement with Floquet theory. We observe the role of pulse shaping in the dynamics, as determined by non-adiabatic transitions between Floquet states. In addition, based on adiabatic perturbation theory in the Floquet picture, we propose a control scheme for fast and high-fidelity single-qubit operations with strong driving. These results pave the way to quantum control with a fidelity beyond the threshold of fault-tolerant quantum computation. \n \nIn the second part of this thesis, we discuss experimental methods and present the characterization of decoherence in superconducting resonators and superconducting qubits. Firstly, we present an analysis method on the measurements of photon loss in superconducting resonators. We use this method to characterize the microwave loss of aluminum oxide, an important material in superconducting circuits. The power and temperature dependence of the measured loss is consistent with loss due to two-level defects in amorphous materials. Secondly, we present experimental results on decoherence and noise spectroscopy of a superconducting flux qubit. Using the qubit as a noise spectrometer, we perform detailed measurements on the power spectral density of the flux noise in superconducting circuits over a wide range of frequencies, from 10^-3 to 10^8 Hz, and over a temperature range from 35 to 130 mK. We also present measurements of frequency and temperature dependence of the qubit energy relaxation.