On optimization of coherent and incoherent controls for two-level quantum systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates control strategies for two-level quantum systems, demonstrating that zero coherent control is not always optimal and proposing a modified two-stage optimization method that reduces control duration.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical optimization approach for incoherent control in open quantum systems and derives analytical formulas for system evolution and gradients.

Findings

Zero coherent control is not always optimal for phase shift gates.

Modified two-stage method reduces control duration significantly.

Analytical formulas enable efficient gradient-based optimization.

Abstract

This article considers some control problems for closed and open two-level quantum systems. The closed system's dynamics is governed by the Schr\"odinger equation with coherent control. The open system's dynamics is governed by the Gorini-Kossakowski-Sudarshan-Lindblad master equation whose Hamiltonian depends on coherent control and superoperator of dissipation depends on incoherent control. For the closed system, we consider the problem for generation of the phase shift gate for some values of phases and final times for which numerically show that zero coherent control, which is a stationary point of the objective functional, is not optimal; it gives an example of subtle point for practical solving problems of quantum control. For the open system, in the two-stage method which was developed for generic N-level quantum systems in [Pechen A., Phys. Rev. A., 84, 042106 (2011)] for approximate generation of a target density matrix, here we consider the two-level systems for which modify the first ("incoherent") stage by numerically optimizing piecewise constant incoherent control instead of using constant incoherent control analytically computed using eigenvalues of the target density matrix. Exact analytical formulas are derived for the system's state evolution, the objective functions and their gradients for the modified first stage. These formulas are applied in the two-step gradient projection method. The numerical simulations show that the modified first stage's duration can be significantly less than the unmodified first stage's duration, but at the cost of optimization in the class of piecewise constant controls.