Suppression of error in qubit rotations due to Bloch–Siegert oscillation via the use of off-resonant Raman excitation

Abstract

The rotation of a quantum bit (qubit) is an important step in quantum computation. The rotation is generally performed using a Rabi oscillation. In a direct two-level qubit system, if the Rabi frequency is comparable to its resonance frequency, the rotating wave approximation is not valid, and the Rabi oscillation is accompanied by the so-called Bloch–Siegert oscillation (BSO) that occurs at twice the frequency of the driving field. One implication of the BSO is that for a given interaction time and Rabi frequency, the degree of rotation experienced by the qubit depends explicitly on the initial phase of the driving field. If this effect is not controlled, it leads to an apparent fluctuation in the rotation of the qubit. Here we show that when an off-resonant lambda system is used to realize a two-level qubit, the BSO is inherently negligible, thus eliminating this source of potential error.