Motivation and overview

The aim of this chapter is to illustrate the basic physical principles and mathematical framework of dynamical decoupling (DD) techniques for open quantum systems, as relevant to quantum information processing (QIP) applications. Historically, the physical origins of DD date back to the idea of coherent averaging of interactions, as pioneered in high-resolution solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) by Haeberlen and Waugh using elegantly designed multiple-pulse sequences [HW68, WHH68, H76]. It was in the same landmark work [HW68] that average Hamiltonian theory was developed as a formalism on which the design and analysis of DD sequences has largely relied since then. In the original context of NMR spectroscopy, decoupling serves the purpose of enhancing resolution by simplifying complex spectra. This is achieved by realizing that an otherwise static spin Hamiltonian “can be made to appear time-dependent in a controlled way,” so that “as the characteristic repetition period of the pulses becomes [sufficiently] small, the spin system comes to behave over long times as though under the influence of a time-independent average Hamiltonian” [HW68]. Some basic insight may be gained by revisiting the paradigmatic example offered by the so-called Hahn echo [H50] and Carr–Purcell (CP) sequences [CP54] in the simplest setting of a two spin-1/2 system.