It is control that turns scientific knowledge into useful technology: in physics and engineering it provides a systematic way for driving a dynamical system from a given initial state into a desired target state with minimized expenditure of energy and resources As one of the cornerstones for enabling quantum technologies, optimal quantum control keeps evolving and expanding into areas as diverse as quantum-enhanced sensing, manipulation of single spins, photons, or atoms, optical spectroscopy, photochemistry, magnetic resonance (spectroscopy as well as medical imaging), quantum information processing and quantum simulation In this communication, state-of-the-art quantum control techniques are reviewed and put into perspective by a consortium of experts in optimal control theory and applications to spectroscopy, imaging, as well as quantum dynamics of closed and open systems We address key challenges and sketch a roadmap for future developments

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Training Schrödinger’s cat: quantum optimal control

This study presents a survey on quantum control theory and applications from a control systems perspective. Some of the basic concepts and main developments (including open-loop control and closed-loop control) in quantum control theory are reviewed. In the area of open-loop quantum control, the paper surveys the notion of controllability for quantum systems and presents several control design strategies including optimal control, Lyapunov-based methodologies, variable structure control and quantum incoherent control. In the area of closed-loop quantum control, this study reviews closed-loop learning control and several important issues related to quantum feedback control including quantum filtering, feedback stabilisation, linear-quadratic-Gaussian control and robust quantum control.

Quantum control theory and applications: a survey

It is control that turns scientific knowledge into useful technology: in physics and engineering it provides a systematic way for driving a system from a given initial state into a desired target state with minimized expenditure of energy and resources -- as famously applied in the Apollo programme. As one of the cornerstones for enabling quantum technologies, optimal quantum control keeps evolving and expanding into areas as diverse as quantum-enhanced sensing, manipulation of single spins, photons, or atoms, optical spectroscopy, photochemistry, magnetic resonance (spectroscopy as well as medical imaging), quantum information processing and quantum simulation. --- Here state-of-the-art quantum control techniques are reviewed and put into perspective by a consortium uniting expertise in optimal control theory and applications to spectroscopy, imaging, quantum dynamics of closed and open systems. We address key challenges and sketch a roadmap to future developments.

/pdf/training-schr-odinger-s-cat-quantum-optimal-control-16o299lhlz.pdf

Training Schr\"odinger's cat: quantum optimal control

This paper proposes a new robust control method for quantum systems with uncertainties involving sliding mode control (SMC). SMC is a widely used approach in classical control theory and industrial applications. We show that SMC is also a useful method for robust control of quantum systems. In this paper, we define two specific classes of sliding modes (i.e. eigenstates and state subspaces) and propose two novel methods combining unitary control and periodic projective measurements for the design of quantum SMC systems. Two examples including a two-level system and a three-level system are presented to demonstrate the proposed SMC method. One of the main features of the proposed method is that the designed control laws can guarantee the desired control performance in the presence of uncertainties in the system Hamiltonian. This SMC approach provides a useful control theoretic tool for robust quantum information processing with uncertainties.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/11/10/105033/pdf

Sliding mode control of quantum systems

We investigate the optimal control problem for a non-Markovian open, dissipative quantum system. Optimal control using the Pontryagin maximum principle is specifically derived. The influences of ohmic reservoir with Lorentz-Drude regularization are numerically studied in a two-level system under the following three conditions: ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}⪡{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{c}$, ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}\ensuremath{\approx}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{c}$, or ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}⪢{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{c}$, where ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{0}$ is the characteristic frequency of the quantum system of interest, and ${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{c}$ the cutoff frequency of the ohmic reservoir. The optimal control process shows its remarkable influences on the decoherence dynamics. The temperature is a key factor in the decoherence dynamics. We analyze the optimal decoherence control in high temperature, intermediate temperature, and low temperature reservoirs, respectively. It implies that designing some engineered reservoirs with the controlled coupling and state of the environment can slow down the decoherence rate and delay the decoherence time. Moreover, we compare the non-Markovian optimal decoherence control with the Markovian one and find that with non-Markovian the engineered artificial reservoirs are better than with the Markovian approximation in controlling the open, dissipative quantum system's decoherence.

Optimal decoherence control in non-Markovian open dissipative quantum systems

We propose an analysis of the time-optimal control of a dissipative two-level quantum system whose dynamics is governed by the Lindblad equation. This simple system allows one to use tools of geometric control theory and to construct its optimal synthesis, i.e., to determine the set of all the optimal trajectories starting from a given initial point. We study different processes such as conversion of a pure state into a mixed state and purification of a mixed state. In particular cases, we show that dissipation is not undesirable and can help accelerating the control.

C. Kontz

Papers

Time-optimal control of a two-level dissipative quantum system