Decoherence and control of a qubit in spin baths: an exact master equation study

In spin-based nanosystems for quantum information processing, electron spin qubits are subject to decoherence due to their interactions with nuclear spin environments. In this paper, we present an exact master equation for a central spin-1/2 system in time-dependent external fields and coupled to a spin-half bath in terms of hyperfine interaction. The master equation provides a unified description for free and controlled dynamics of the central spin and is formally independent of the details and size of spin environments. Different from the previous approaches, the master equation remains exact even in the presence of external control fields. Using the parameters for realistic nanosystems with nonzero nuclear spins, such as GaAs, we investigate the Overhauser’s effect on the decoherence dynamics of the central spin under different distributions of bath-spin frequencies and system-bath coupling strengths. Furthermore, we apply the leakage elimination operator, in a nonperturbative manner, to this system to suppress the decoherence induced by hyperfine interaction.