Dynamical suppression of decoherence in two-state quantum systems

Abstract

The dynamics of a decohering two-level system driven by a suitable control Hamiltonian is studied. The control procedure is implemented as a sequence of radio-frequency pulses that repetitively flip the state of the system, a technique that can be termed quantum ``bang-bang'' control after its classical analog. Decoherence introduced by the system's interaction with a quantum environment is shown to be washed out completely in the limit of continuous flipping and greatly suppressed provided the interval between the pulses is made comparable to the correlation time of the environment. The model suggests a strategy to fight against decoherence that complements existing quantum error-correction techniques.