Non-Markovian qubit decoherence during dispersive readout

Abstract: We study qubit decoherence under generalized dispersive readout, i.e., we investigate a qubit coupled to a resonantly driven dissipative harmonic oscillator. We provide a complete picture by allowing for arbitrarily large qubit-oscillator detuning and by considering also a coupling to the square of the oscillator coordinate, which is relevant for flux qubits. Analytical results for the decoherence time are obtained by a transformation of the qubit-oscillator Hamiltonian to the dispersive frame and a subsequent master equation treatment beyond the Markov limit. We predict a crossover from Markovian decay to a decay with Gaussian shape. Our results are corroborated by the numerical solution of the full qubit-oscillator master equation in the original frame.