One of the defining features of pulsed dynamical decoupling is its suppression of a driven qubit's sensitivity to static detuning errors between the drive field and qubit resonance. In this paper, we show that dissipation, in the form of excited-state decay, can change this behavior entirely, producing an interference signal with a strong detuning dependence. This signal arises from decay during driven evolution and relies on coherence retained by the qubit after such a decay event. We develop analytical and numerical models that capture the underlying mechanism and observe this same dissipation-induced detuning dependence experimentally in both a free-space strontium atom interferometer and a superconducting transmon qubit system. We also use this dissipation-induced detuning dependence as the basis for a new spectroscopic technique called Dissipative Carr-Purcell Spectroscopy (DCPS) and compare it with a traditional Ramsey sequence. Our results establish a regime of pulsed dynamical decoupling in which dissipation reshapes, rather than merely degrades, coherent control, and we expect these dynamics to be relevant to a wide range of quantum systems.
One of the defining features of pulsed dynamical decoupling is its suppression of a driven qubit's sensitivity to static detuning errors between the drive field and qubit resonance. In this paper, we show that dissipation, in the form of excited-state decay, can change this behavior entirely, producing an interference signal with a strong detuning dependence. This signal arises from decay during driven evolution and relies on coherence retained by the qubit after such a decay event. We develop analytical and numerical models that capture the underlying mechanism and observe this same dissipation-induced detuning dependence experimentally in both a free-space strontium atom interferometer and a superconducting transmon qubit system. We also use this dissipation-induced detuning dependence as the basis for a new spectroscopic technique called Dissipative Carr-Purcell Spectroscopy (DCPS) and compare it with a traditional Ramsey sequence. Our results establish a regime of pulsed dynamical decoupling in which dissipation reshapes, rather than merely degrades, coherent control, and we expect these dynamics to be relevant to a wide range of quantum systems.
Characteristic dips appear in the coherence traces of a probe qubit when dynamical decoupling (DD) is applied in synchrony with the precession of target nuclear spins, forming the basis for nanoscale nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The frequency of the microwave control pulses is chosen to match the qubit transition but this can be detuned from resonance by experimental errors, hyperfine coupling intrinsic to the qubit, or inhomogeneous broadening. The detuning acts as an additional static field which is generally assumed to be completely removed in Hahn echo and DD experiments. Here we demonstrate that this is not the case in the presence of finite pulse-durations, where a detuning can drastically alter the coherence response of the probe qubit, with important implications for sensing applications. Using the electronic spin associated with a nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond as a test qubit system, we analytically and experimentally study the qubit coherence response under CPMG and XY8 dynamical decoupling control schemes in the presence of finite pulse-durations and static detunings. Most striking is the splitting of the NMR resonance under CPMG, whereas under XY8 the amplitude of the NMR signal is modulated. Our work shows that the detuning error must not be neglected when extracting data from quantum sensor coherence traces.
Superconducting transmon qubits form the backbone of today's leading quantum processors, where high field dispersive readout relies fundamentally on the shape and temporal structure of microwave control pulses. While transmon qubits offer improved robustness against charge noise, their performance is still strongly influenced by environmental coupling, particularly the Purcell effect and by the spectral characteristics of the readout pulses used for state preparation and logic operations. In this study, we present a rigorous comparative analysis of qubit coherence dynamics using measurement under four relevant configurations: a single-step rectangular pulse without Purcell decay, a single-step pulse subject to Purcell-induced relaxation, a two-step shaped pulse without Purcell effects, and a two-step shaped pulse incorporating Purcell decay. By solving the time-dependent Lindblad master equation for a three-level transmon system, we illustrate how readout pulse shaping and Purcell filtering independently and jointly influence qubit population dynamics, excited-state lifetime, and the final-state fidelity. The results demonstrate that two-step readout pulse shaping significantly improves coherence by suppressing overshoot and reducing higher-level population transfer, while the inclusion of Purcell mitigation further stabilizes the dynamics and enhances fidelity. The most notable observation is that the combined application of pulse shaping and Purcell filtering produces the most stable and highest fidelity qubit state discrimination. This unified perspective constitutes the central novelty of our work. Such a comparative framework, integrating pulse engineering with environmental decay modeling, has received limited explicit treatment in prior literature. The findings provide critical insights for optimizing both readout protocols and quantum hardware design in large scale superconducting quantum systems.
Dynamical decoupling is a coherent control technique where the intrinsic and extrinsic couplings of a quantum system are effectively averaged out by application of specially designed driving fields (refocusing pulse sequences). This entails pumping energy into the system, which can be especially dangerous when it has sharp spectral features like a cavity mode close to resonance. In this work we show that such an effect can be avoided with properly constructed refocusing sequences. To this end we construct the average Hamiltonian expansion for the system evolution operator associated with a single ``soft'' $\ensuremath{\pi}$ pulse. To second order in the pulse duration, we characterize a symmetric pulse shape by three parameters, two of which can be made zero by shaping. We express the effective Hamiltonians for several pulse sequences in terms of these parameters and use the results to analyze the structure of error operators for a controlled Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian. When errors are cancelled to second order, numerical simulations show excellent qubit fidelity with strongly suppressed oscillator heating.
Driven-dissipative qubit-resonator dynamics, which are the basis of most dispersive superconducting qubit measurement schemes, are often modeled with Lindblad master equations built from subsystem local jump operators, even when the qubit and resonator are appreciably hybridized. In this work we revisit this setting using a microscopic Bloch-Redfield approach, where dissipation is constructed in the eigenbasis of the coupled qubit-resonator Hamiltonian with a complete, frequency dependent, open system description of the transmission line environment. Here, we show that the Lindblad and Bloch-Redfield decay rates can be quantitatively different in the absence of driving, while in the driven case we demonstrate that the time-independent Redfield dissipator and its time-dependent generalization can show qualitatively different behaviors as a function of driving strength. Finally, we investigate the effects of driving in structured spectral densities, recovering the suppression of measurement-induced relaxation in the presence of a so called Purcell filter.
We experimentally demonstrate that decoherent errors for a qubit can be reduced using dynamic decoupling control. The quantum system in our experiment is a praseodymium ground-state hyperfine transition in Pr3+:Y2SiO5. These experiments were undertaken using an ensemble, where care was taken to reduce incoherent errors resulting from inhomogeneity across the sample. The volume of the Bloch sphere after transformation by the applied pulse sequence was used as a measure of fidelity of the qubit. The strength of the qubit-environment coupling can be tuned by the application of a magnetic field, allowing for regimes of varying decoherence rates to be investigated. We show that the Bloch sphere volume, with the application of dynamic decoupling pulse sequences, decays at a slower rate than observed under free evolution.
We present theoretical transmission spectra of a strongly driven, damped flux qubit coupled to a dissipative resonator in the ultrastrong-coupling regime. Such a qubit-oscillator system, described within a dissipative Rabi model, constitutes the building block of superconducting circuit QED platforms. The addition of a strong drive allows one to characterize the system properties and study novel phenomena, leading to a better understanding and control of the qubit-oscillator system. In this work, the calculated transmission of a weak probe field quantifies the response of the qubit, in frequency domain, under the influence of the quantized resonator and of the strong microwave drive. We find distinctive features of the entangled driven qubit-resonator spectrum, namely resonant features and avoided crossings, modified by the presence of the dissipative environment. The magnitude, positions, and broadening of these features are determined by the interplay among qubit-oscillator detuning, the strength of their coupling, the driving amplitude, and the interaction with the heat bath. This work establishes the theoretical basis for future experiments in the driven ultrastrong-coupling regime.