Decoherence suppression in a resonant driving field

Resonant radio frequency (rf) control fields have been employed to suppress decoherence in single quantum bits (qubits) encoded in the probability amplitudes of np fine-structure states in Li Rydberg atoms. As described previously [1], static electric-field tuning of the spin and orbital angular momentum composition of the fine-structure eigenstates enables qubit storage in an approximate decoherence-free subspace in which phase errors due to small stray electric and magnetic fields are strongly suppressed. In addition, it was found that sequences of short electric field pulses could be utilized in a 'bang-bang' dynamic decoupling scheme to improve coherence times. We now show that a continuous resonant rf field can also suppress decoherence in this system. The rf-dressed fine-structure states form a more robust basis in which the energy splitting between the component qubit levels is locked to the drive frequency, and decoherence is essentially eliminated. Measurements of the operational range of rf frequency and field strength required to achieve decoherence suppression are in agreement with the predictions of a two-level mode