Atom interferometers require both high efficiency and robust performance in their mirror pulses under experimental inhomogeneities. In this work, we demonstrated that quantum optimal control designed mirror pulse significantly enhance interferometer performance by using novel adaptive sliced structure. Using gradient ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE), optimized mirror pulse for a Mach-Zehnder light-pulse atom interferometer was designed by discretizing the control into non-uniform phase slices. This design broadened the tolerence to experimentally relevant variations in detuning $[-Ω_0,Ω_0]$ and Rabi frequency $[0.1\timesΩ_0,1.9\timesΩ_0]$ ( $Ω_0=2π\times25$ kHz), while maintaining high transfer efficiency even when the response-time delays up to 1.6 $\rm{μs}$ . The optimized pulse was found to be robust to coupling inhomogeneity and velocity spread, offering a significant improvement in robustness over conventional pulse. The adaptive pulse slicing method provides a minimalist strategy that reduces experimental complexity while enhancing robustness and scalability, offering an innovative scheme for quantum optimal control in high precision atom interferometry.Atom interferometers require both high efficiency and robust performance in their mirror pulses under experimental inhomogeneities. In this work, we demonstrated that quantum optimal control designed mirror pulse significantly enhance interferometer performance by using novel adaptive sliced structure. Using gradient ascent pulse engineering (GRAPE), optimized mirror pulse for a Mach-Zehnder light-pulse atom interferometer was designed by discretizing the control into non-uniform phase slices. This design broadened the tolerence to experimentally relevant variations in detuning $[-Ω_0,Ω_0]$ and Rabi frequency $[0.1\timesΩ_0,1.9\timesΩ_0]$ ($Ω_0=2π\times25$ kHz), while maintaining high transfer efficiency even when the response-time delays up to 1.6 $\rm{μs}$. The optimized pulse was found to be robust to coupling inhomogeneity and velocity spread, offering a significant improvement in robustness over conventional pulse. The adaptive pulse slicing method provides a minimalist strategy that reduces experimental complexity while enhancing robustness and scalability, offering an innovative scheme for quantum optimal control in high precision atom interferometry.

quant-pharXiv:2601.15586Physical Review AJan 23, 20260 citations

Control of inhomogeneous atomic ensembles of hyperfine qudits

Brian Mischuck, Seth Merkel, Ivan Deutsch

We study the ability to control $d$ -dimensional quantum systems (qudits) encoded in the hyperfine spin of alkali-metal atoms through the application of radio- and microwave-frequency magnetic fields in the presence of inhomogeneities in amplitude and detuning. Such a capability is essential to the design of robust pulses that mitigate the effects of experimental uncertainty and also for application to tomographic addressing of particular members of an extended ensemble. We study the problem of preparing an arbitrary state in the Hilbert space from an initial fiducial state. We prove that inhomogeneous control of qudit ensembles is possible based on a semianalytic protocol that synthesizes the target through a sequence of alternating rf and microwave-driven SU(2) rotations in overlapping irreducible subspaces. Several examples of robust control are studied, and the semianalytic protocol is compared to a brute-force, full numerical search. For small inhomogeneities, $<$ $1%$ , both approaches achieve average fidelities greater than 0.99, but the brute-force approach performs superiorly, reaching high fidelities in shorter times and capable of handling inhomogeneities well beyond experimental uncertainty. The full numerical search is also applied to tomographic addressing whereby two different nonclassical states of the spin are produced in two halves of the ensemble.We study the ability to control $d$-dimensional quantum systems (qudits) encoded in the hyperfine spin of alkali-metal atoms through the application of radio- and microwave-frequency magnetic fields in the presence of inhomogeneities in amplitude and detuning. Such a capability is essential to the design of robust pulses that mitigate the effects of experimental uncertainty and also for application to tomographic addressing of particular members of an extended ensemble. We study the problem of preparing an arbitrary state in the Hilbert space from an initial fiducial state. We prove that inhomogeneous control of qudit ensembles is possible based on a semianalytic protocol that synthesizes the target through a sequence of alternating rf and microwave-driven SU(2) rotations in overlapping irreducible subspaces. Several examples of robust control are studied, and the semianalytic protocol is compared to a brute-force, full numerical search. For small inhomogeneities, $<$$1%$, both approaches achieve average fidelities greater than 0.99, but the brute-force approach performs superiorly, reaching high fidelities in shorter times and capable of handling inhomogeneities well beyond experimental uncertainty. The full numerical search is also applied to tomographic addressing whereby two different nonclassical states of the spin are produced in two halves of the ensemble.

arXiv:1109.0146Physical Review AFeb 3, 201237 citations

[-Ω_0,Ω_0]

and Rabi frequency

[0.1\timesΩ_0,1.9\timesΩ_0]

(

Ω_0=2π\times25

kHz), while maintaining high transfer efficiency even when the response-time delays up to 1.6

\rm{μs}

. The optimized pulse was found to be robust to coupling inhomogeneity and velocity spread, offering a significant improvement in robustness over conventional pulse. The adaptive pulse slicing method provides a minimalist strategy that reduces experimental complexity while enhancing robustness and scalability, offering an innovative scheme for quantum optimal control in high precision atom interferometry.

We study the ability to control

d

-dimensional quantum systems (qudits) encoded in the hyperfine spin of alkali-metal atoms through the application of radio- and microwave-frequency magnetic fields in the presence of inhomogeneities in amplitude and detuning. Such a capability is essential to the design of robust pulses that mitigate the effects of experimental uncertainty and also for application to tomographic addressing of particular members of an extended ensemble. We study the problem of preparing an arbitrary state in the Hilbert space from an initial fiducial state. We prove that inhomogeneous control of qudit ensembles is possible based on a semianalytic protocol that synthesizes the target through a sequence of alternating rf and microwave-driven SU(2) rotations in overlapping irreducible subspaces. Several examples of robust control are studied, and the semianalytic protocol is compared to a brute-force, full numerical search. For small inhomogeneities,

<

1%

, both approaches achieve average fidelities greater than 0.99, but the brute-force approach performs superiorly, reaching high fidelities in shorter times and capable of handling inhomogeneities well beyond experimental uncertainty. The full numerical search is also applied to tomographic addressing whereby two different nonclassical states of the spin are produced in two halves of the ensemble.