We experimentally demonstrated that the decoherence due to amplitude damping can be suppressed using quantum measurement reversal. By implementing two partial measurements, we succeeded in preferentially selecting the cases where states do not experience decoherence.
We show that qubit decoherence due to zero-temperature energy relaxation can be almost completely suppressed by using the quantum uncollapsing (measurement reversal) procedure. To protect a qubit state, a partial quantum measurement moves it toward the ground state, where it is kept during the storage period, while the second partial measurement restores the initial state. This procedure preferentially selects the cases without energy decay events. Stronger decoherence suppression requires smaller selection probability; a desired point in this trade-off can be chosen by varying the measurement strength. The experiment can be realized in a straightforward way using the superconducting phase qubit.
Decoherence, which causes degradation of entanglement and in some cases entanglement sudden death, is a critical issue faced in quantum information. Protecting entanglement from decoherence, therefore, is essential in practical realization of quantum computing and quantum communication protocols. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel method to protect entanglement from amplitude damping decoherence via weak measurement and quantum measurement reversal. It is shown that even entanglement sudden death can be circumvented.