Light-Induced Decoherence in the Driven Evolution of an Atom
References: [QIS9, QIS5]
Atoms or ions prepared in traps for applications in quantum information processing (QIP) often become addressed by radiation within schemes of alternating microwave-optical double resonance. QIP requires thorough assessment of decoherence. A well-defined amount of decoherence may be applied to the system when spurious resonance light is admitted simultaneously with the driving radiation. This decoherence is quantified in terms of longitudinal and transversal relaxation. It may serve for calibrating observed decoherence as well as for testing error-correcting quantum codes.