Bath-induced persistent Rabi oscillations in a qubit

Ilves, Jesper

Decoherence is a quantum-mechanical phenomenon severely limiting quantum information processing and storage capability in quantum computers. Decoherence refers to mechanisms that cause transfer of information from a quantum system to its bath. Typically, in theoretical and experimental considerations of different systems containing superconducting qubits, the coupling strength between a qubit and its bath has been assumed to be constant in time. In this case, many standard results in the dynamics of two-level systems follow. For example, due to decoherence, driven Rabi oscillations in a qubit have a characteristic decay time. In addition, the oscillations may take place at any phase. However, by considering time-dependent coupling to the bath, these phenomena may be absent. In this thesis, we demonstrate with numerical simulations of a time-dependent Lindblad master equation persistent Rabi oscillations in a qubit driven by a coherent drive tone. The persistent Rabi oscillations are induced by modulating the coupling of the qubit to the bath with a sinusoidal temporal shape. We observe that the temporal modulation enforces a limit cycle on the evolution of the dressed qubit state with a fixed phase relative to the phase of the sinusoidal modulation regardless of the initial state of the system. Through a synchronization-like phenomenon, the frequency of the Rabi oscillation adapts to match the frequency of the modulation. We determine the effect of different system parameters on the limit cycle and study how the amplitude of the persistent oscillation depends on the coupling modulation parameters. We also observe a similar effect in the freely evolving qubit precession. In addition, the qubit acts as a non-linear mixer, resulting in different linear combinations of the original modulation waveform appearing in the bath-induced Rabi oscillations. We also introduce a design for a physical system where our simulations can be verified experimentally.

Alexey Vladimirovich Ustinov, Juergen Lisenfeld, Tobias Wirth +2 more

S. K. Dutta, Huizhong Xu, Frederick W. Strauch +9 more

Lingjie Du, Yang Yu

We study electromagnetically induced interference at superconducting qubits. The interaction between qubits and electromagnetic fields can provide additional coupling channels to qubit states, leading to quantum interference in a microwave driven qubit. In particular, the interwell relaxation or Rabi oscillation, resulting respectively from the multi- or single-mode interaction, can induce effective crossovers. The environment is modeled by a multi-mode thermal bath, generating the interwell relaxation. Relaxation induced interference, independent of the tunnel coupling, provides deeper understanding to the interaction between the qubits and their environment. It also supplies a useful tool to characterize the relaxation strength as well as the characteristic frequency of the bath. In addition, we demonstrate the relaxation can generate population inversion in a strongly driving two-level system. On the other hand, different from Rabi oscillation, Rabi oscillation induced interference involves more complicated and modulated photon exchange thus offers an alternative means to manipulate the qubit, with more controllable parameters including the strength and position of the tunnel coupling. It also provides a testing ground for exploring nonlinear quantum phenomena and quantum state manipulation, in not only the flux qubit but also the systems with no crossover structure, e.g. phase qubits.

Lingjie Du, Yang Yu, Dong Lan

Interaction between quantum two-level systems (qubits) and electromagnetic fields can provide additional coupling channels to qubit states. In particular, the interwell relaxation or Rabi oscillations, resulting, respectively, from the multi- or single-mode interaction, can produce effective crossovers, leading to electromagnetically induced interference in microwave driven qubits. The environment is modeled by a multimode thermal bath, generating the interwell relaxation. Relaxation induced interference, independent of the tunnel coupling, provides deeper understanding to the interaction between the qubits and their environment. It also supplies a useful tool to characterize the relaxation strength as well as the characteristic frequency of the bath. In addition, we demonstrate the relaxation can generate population inversion in a strongly driving two-level system. On the other hand, different from Rabi oscillations, Rabi-oscillation-induced interference involves more complicated and modulated photon exchange thus offers an alternative means to manipulate the qubit, with more controllable parameters including the strength and position of the tunnel coupling. It also provides a testing ground for exploring nonlinear quantum phenomena and quantum state manipulation in qubits either with or without crossover structure.

Sergey N Shevchenko, A. N. Omelyanchouk, Alexandre M. Zagoskin +2 more