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Chinese Physics B

Effects of imperfect pulses on dynamical decoupling using quantum trajectory method

Lin-Ze He, Man-Chao Zhang, Chun-Wang Wu, Yi Xie, Wei Wu, Ping‐Xing Chen

Published Dec 1, 2018• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The dynamical decoupling (DD) method is widely adopted to preserve coherence in different quantum systems. In the case of ideal pulses, its effects on the suppression of noise can be analytically described by the mathematical form of filter function. However, in practical experiments, the unavoidable pulse errors limit the efficiency of DD. In this paper, we study the effects of imperfect pulses on DD efficiency based on quantum trajectories. By directly generating a pseudo noise sequence correlated in time, we can explore the performance of DD with different pulse errors in the typical noise environment. It shows that, for the typical 1/ f noise environment, the phase error of operational pulses severely affects the performance of noise suppression, while the detuning and intensity errors have less influence. Also, we get the thresholds of these errors for efficient DD under the given experimental conditions. Our method can be widely applied to guide practical DD experimental implementation.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/27/12/120303

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The dynamical decoupling (DD) method is widely adopted to preserve coherence in different quantum systems. In the case of ideal pulses, its effects on the suppression of noise can be analytically described by the mathematical form of filter function. However, in practical experiments, the unavoidable pulse errors limit the efficiency of DD. In this paper, we study the effects of imperfect pulses on DD efficiency based on quantum trajectories. By directly generating a pseudo noise sequence correlated in time, we can explore the performance of DD with different pulse errors in the typical noise environment. It shows that, for the typical 1/ f noise environment, the phase error of operational pulses severely affects the performance of noise suppression, while the detuning and intensity errors have less influence. Also, we get the thresholds of these errors for efficient DD under the given experimental conditions. Our method can be widely applied to guide practical DD experimental implementation.
Dynamical decoupling (DD) refers to a well-established family of methods for error mitigation, comprising pulse sequences aimed at averaging away slowly evolving noise in quantum systems. Here we revisit the question of its efficacy in the presence of noisy pulses in scenarios important for quantum devices today: pulses with gate control errors, and the computational setting where DD is used to reduce noise in every computational gate. We focus on the well-known schemes of periodic (or universal) DD and its extension, concatenated DD, for scaling up its power. The qualitative conclusions from our analysis of these two schemes nevertheless apply to other DD approaches. In the presence of noisy pulses, DD does not always mitigate errors. It does so only when the added noise from the imperfect DD pulses does not outweigh the increased ability in averaging away the original background noise. We present break-even conditions that delineate when DD is useful, and further find that there is a limit in the performance of concatenated DD, specifically in how far one can concatenate the DD pulse sequences before the added noise no longer offers any further benefit in error mitigation.
Dynamical decoupling (DD) is a widely used and resource-efficient technique for error suppression, but conventional DD relies on periodically repeating a short pulse block to refocus the qubit state during idle periods. Imperfections in this block cause residual errors to accumulate, ultimately degrading state recovery over long idle times. Here, we introduce a universal optimal tracking approach that extends the original tracking concept to a fully state-independent setting for designing DD sequences. By monitoring the qubit's evolution at predefined waypoints during optimization, the method dynamically compensates residual errors while preserving regular refocusing. Experimental demonstrations on a superconducting-qubit platform confirm the suppression of error accumulation under static control imperfections, in agreement with numerical predictions. Complementary simulations further show that optimal-tracking-based sequences maintain strong performance under time-dependent noise. These results establish optimal tracking as a practical and hardware-agnostic approach to designing short, robust DD sequences suitable for noisy quantum devices.
Currently available quantum computers are prone to errors. Circuit optimization and error mitigation methods are needed to design quantum circuits to achieve better fidelity when executed on NISQ hardware. Dynamical decoupling (DD) is generally used to suppress the decoherence error and different DD strategies have been proposed. Moreover, the circuit fidelity can be improved by pulselevel optimization, such as creating hardware-native pulse-efficient gates. This paper implements all the popular DD sequences and evaluates their performances on IBM quantum chips with different characteristics for various well-known quantum applications. Also, we investigate combining DD with pulse-level optimization method and apply them to QAOA to solve Max-Cut problem. Based on the experimental results, we found that DD can be a benefit for only certain types of quantum algorithms, while the combination of DD and pulse-level optimization methods always has a positive impact. Finally, we provide several guidelines for users to learn how to use these pulse-level noise mitigation methods to build circuits for quantum applications with high fidelity.
Currently available quantum computers are prone to errors. Circuit optimization and error mitigation methods are needed to design quantum circuits to achieve better fidelity when executed on NISQ hardware. Dynamical decoupling (DD) is generally used to suppress the decoherence error and different DD strategies have been proposed. Moreover, the circuit fidelity can be improved by pulse-level optimization, such as creating hardware-native pulse-efficient gates. This paper implements all the popular DD sequences and evaluates their performances on IBM quantum chips with different characteristics for various well-known quantum applications. Also, we investigate combining DD with pulse-level optimization method and apply them to QAOA to solve Max-Cut problem. Based on the experimental results, we found that DD can be a benefit for only certain types of quantum algorithms, while the combination of DD and pulse-level optimization methods always has a positive impact. Finally, we provide several guidelines for users to learn how to use these noise mitigation methods to build circuits for quantum applications with high fidelity on IBM quantum computers.
Abstract Dynamical decoupling (DD), usually implemented by sophisticated sequences of instantaneous control pulses, is a well-established quantum control technique for quantum information and quantum sensing. In practice, the pulses are inevitably imperfect with many systematic errors that may influence the performances of DD. In particular, Rabi error and detuning are primary systemic errors arising from finite pulse duration, incorrect time control, and frequency instability. Here, we propose a phase-modulated DD with staggered global phases for the basic units of the pulse sequences to suppress these systemic errors. By varying the global phases appended to the pulses in the dynamical decoupling unit alternatively with 0 or π, our protocol can significantly reduce the influences of Rabi error and detuning. Our protocol is general and can be combined with the most existing DD sequences such as universal DD, knill DD, XY, etc. As an example, we further apply our method to quantum lock-in detection for measuring time-dependent alternating signals. Our study paves the way for a simple and feasible way to realize robust dynamical decoupling sequences, which can be applicable for various quantum sensing scenarios.
Dynamical decoupling (DD) and Decoherence free subspace (DFS) are powerful techniques in quantum computing aimed at enhancing fidelity by mitigating the detrimental effects of noise and environmental interactions. In quantum systems, noise and decoherence can degrade the coherence of quantum states, leading to errors and reduced computational accuracy. DD employs carefully designed sequences of control pulses to periodically intervene and counteract these undesired interactions, while DFS utilizes subspace encoding techniques to protect quantum information from decoherence. To evaluate and compare the fidelity achieved by DD and DFS, this paper presents a series of experiments considering the effect of time and the number of qubits. The experiments provide valuable insights into the performance of both methods under different conditions. By systematically examining the fidelity results, the impact of time and the scaling behavior with increasing qubits can be assessed. The experimental findings showcase the effectiveness of DD in reducing the impact of noise and extending the coherence time of quantum states. By strategically manipulating the quantum system, DD minimizes error accumulation and preserves the integrity of fragile quantum information. It is observed that the decrease in fidelity with increasing t is relatively small and gradual. Despite being outperformed by DD, the DFS method exhibits robustness and maintains a high degree of fidelity even in the presence of extended time durations.