Exact broadband excitation of two-level systems by mapping spins to springs

Designing accurate and high-fidelity broadband pulses is an essential component in conducting quantum experiments across fields from protein spectroscopy to quantum optics. However, constructing exact and analytic broadband pulses remains unsolved due to the nonlinearity and complexity of the underlying spin system dynamics. Here, we present a nontrivial dynamic connection between nonlinear spin and linear spring systems and show the surprising result that such nonlinear and complex pulse design problems are equivalent to designing controls to steer linear harmonic oscillators under optimal forcing. We derive analytic broadband π/2 and π pulses that perform exact, or asymptotically exact, excitation and inversion over a defined bandwidth, and also with bounded amplitude. This development opens up avenues for pulse sequence design and lays a foundation for understanding the control of two-level systems.Coherent control of two-level systems is crucial for achieving fidelity in spectroscopy and quantum computing, but inherent nonlinearities and parameter variation have, to date, required an approximate, numerical approach. Here, Li et al. show how to map a spin ensemble to a spring model so analytic pulses can be designed using linear methods.