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arXiv:2509.15063 · Physical Review A

Dynamical decoupling protection for three-level systems

P. Z. Zhao, Lei Qiao

Published Sep 3, 2025• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In addition to the traditional two-level system, the three-level system serves as another important elemental building block for the manipulation of qubits. However, the quantum information processing in the three-level system is also subject to the decoherence induced by the interaction between the quantum system and its environment or by the crosstalk between different qutrits. In this work, we construct a sequence of physically feasible dynamical decoupling operators for the three-level system to mitigate not only the transverse dephasing between the excited state and ground states but also the longitudinal relaxation among them. Combining the Hamiltonian engineering and our constructed dynamical decoupling sequence, we further realize the dynamical decoupling protection of qutrit-based quantum gates. Our scheme can effectively enhance the fidelity of three-level-based quantum gates through filtering out the environmental noises, which may provide a new horizon to improve the accuracy of three-level-based quantum manipulation.

DOI
10.1103/39d3-xmkh

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In addition to the traditional two-level system, the three-level system serves as another important elemental building block for the manipulation of qubits. However, the quantum information processing in the three-level system is also subject to the decoherence induced by the interaction between the quantum system and its environment or by the crosstalk between different qutrits. In this work, we construct a sequence of physically feasible dynamical decoupling operators for the three-level system to mitigate not only the transverse dephasing between the excited state and ground states but also the longitudinal relaxation among them. Combining the Hamiltonian engineering and our constructed dynamical decoupling sequence, we further realize the dynamical decoupling protection of qutrit-based quantum gates. Our scheme can effectively enhance the fidelity of three-level-based quantum gates through filtering out the environmental noises, which may provide a new horizon to improve the accuracy of three-level-based quantum manipulation.
Implementing precise operations on quantum systems is one of the biggest challenges for building quantum devices in a noisy environment. Dynamical decoupling attenuates the destructive effect of the environmental noise, but so far, it has been used primarily in the context of quantum memories. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a general scheme for combining dynamical decoupling with quantum logical gate operations using the example of an electron-spin qubit of a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. We achieve process fidelities >98% for gate times that are 2 orders of magnitude longer than the unprotected dephasing time T2.
Hybrid systems consisting of different types of qubits are promising for building quantum computers if they combine useful properties of their constituent qubits. However, they also pose additional challenges if one type of qubits is more susceptible to environmental noise than the others. Dynamical decoupling can help to protect such systems by reducing the decoherence due to the environmental noise, but the protection must be designed such that it does not interfere with the control fields driving the logical operations. Here, we test such a protection scheme on a quantum register consisting of the electronic and nuclear spins of a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond. The results show that processing is compatible with protection: The dephasing time was extended almost to the limit given by the longitudinal relaxation time of the electron spin.
In the field of quantum information, a major challenge is to protect and shield quantum systems from environmental influences, which cause dissipation and decoherence. One approach to address this problem is called dynamical decoupling, where we act on a quantum system with a series of fast and strong local control operations. If done correctly, the system's state gets rotated in discrete steps in its state space in such a way that the effects of the environment cancel up to a certain order. In the first part of this thesis, we will introduce the basics of dynamical decoupling and present a new approach for constructing dynamical decoupling schemes based on sequences of Weyl operators on networks of qudits. This approach goes beyond merely protecting a quantum system, as it is also capable of altering existing Hamiltonian interactions in ways suitable for quantum simulation purposes. We will also investigate how imperfect controls influence the effectiveness of dynamical decoupling and focus particularly on stochastic noise. In the second part of the thesis, we study concrete scenarios for the application of dynamical decoupling. First, we consider the task of quantum state transfer on a linear chain of qubits and use decoupling to protect the transfer from detrimental influences caused by a bend in the chain. We also look at how to design the specific interaction strengths required on the chain to make the state transfer work and extend this result to chains of qudits. Another chapter deals with decoupling the atomic centre-of-mass motion of a trapped atom or ion in a cavity interacting with a radiation field. Finally, we use decoupling to execute sequences of one- and two-qubit quantum gates on a chain of coupled qubits. Particular care is taken to ensure high fidelity operations in the presence of imperfect decoupling pulses.
Dynamical decoupling as a quantum control strategy aims at suppressing quantum decoherence adopting the popular philosophy that the disorder in the unitary evolution of the open quantum system caused by environmental noises should be neutralized by a sequence of ordered or well-designed external operations acting on the system. This work studies the solution of quantum-state-diffusion equations by mixing two channels of environmental noises, i.e., relaxation (dissipation) and dephasing. It is interesting to find in two-level and three-level atomic systems that a non-Markovian relaxation or dissipation process can be suppressed by a Markovian dephasing noise. The discovery results in an anomalous control strategy by coordinating relaxation and dephasing processes. Our approach opens an avenue of noise control strategy with no artificial manipulation over the open quantum systems.
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We implement dynamical decoupling techniques to mitigate noise and enhance the lifetime of an entangled state that is formed in a superconducting flux qubit coupled to a microscopic two-level system. By rapidly changing the qubit's transition frequency relative to the two-level system, we realize a refocusing pulse that reduces dephasing due to fluctuations in the transition frequencies, thereby improving the coherence time of the entangled state. The coupling coherence is further enhanced when applying multiple refocusing pulses, in agreement with our 1/f noise model. The results are applicable to any two-qubit system with transverse coupling and they highlight the potential of decoupling techniques for improving two-qubit gate fidelities, an essential prerequisite for implementing fault-tolerant quantum computing.