Reverse engineering control of relative phase and populations of two-level quantum systems

Abstract: We consider the simultaneous control of the relative phase and populations of two-level quantum systems by an external field. We apply a reverse engineering approach, which allows obtaining an analytical expression for the control field depending upon two user-defined functions that dictate the population and the relative phase dynamics. We show that, in general, the prescribed functions for the dynamics cannot be chosen arbitrarily. We implement the reverse engineering technique to reach several target states using different kinds of functions to specify the system dynamics. We show that by adjusting these dynamical functions, we can produce different kinds of control fields. These controls can be easily build, needing, apart from the dynamical function themselves, only their derivatives. The methodology presented here will certainly find many applications that go beyond simple two-level systems.