Cavity-Assisted Monitoring of Dynamics for Complex Quantum Systems

  1. A. Shabani,
  2. J. Roden,
  3. and K. B. Whaley
Cavity and circuit quantum electrodynamics (CQED) technologies have progressed significantly during recent years, enabling real-time monitoring and control of quantum systems, yet their
potential for quantum tomography or spectroscopy is largely unexplored. We develop here a CQED formalism for monitoring the dynamics of a complex quantum system, deriving a set of Stochastic Hierarchy Equations of Motion to describe continuous measurement in presence of non-perturbative and non-Markovian decoherence effects. Using the cavity as a probe enables us to engineer a continuous measurement observable by tuning either the cavity frequency, the cavity drive phase or the detector phase. This turns the cavity into a tool for continuous quantum state tomography with no need for active control. We further demonstrate that time correlations of the detector record can provide a spectroscopic probe of the non-Markovian nature of the decoherence dynamics.