Demonstration of the reduction of decoherent errors in a solid-state qubit using dynamic decoupling techniques

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate that decoherent errors for a qubit can be reduced using dynamic decoupling control. The quantum system in our experiment is a praseodymium ground-state hyperfine transition in Pr3+: Y2 SiO5. These experiments were undertaken using an ensemble, where care was taken to reduce incoherent errors resulting from inhomogeneity across the sample. The volume of the Bloch sphere after transformation by the applied pulse sequence was used as a measure of fidelity of the qubit. The strength of the qubit-environment coupling can be tuned by the application of a magnetic field, allowing for regimes of varying decoherence rates to be investigated. We show that the Bloch sphere volume, with the application of dynamic decoupling pulse sequences, decays at a slower rate than observed under free evolution. © 2009 The American Physical Society.