Coherent control techniques for two-state quantum systems: A comparative study

We evaluate various sources of errors that occur when attempting to produce a specified coherent change of a two-state quantum system using six popular coherent control techniques: resonant excitation, adiabatic following, composite adiabatic passage, universal composite pulses, shortcut to adiabaticity, and single-shot shaped pulses. As error sources we consider spatial intensity distribution, transit time variation, inhomogeneous broadening, Doppler broadening, unwanted chirp and shape errors. For the various error types different techniques emerge as the best performers but overall, we find that universal composite pulses perform most consistently and are most resilient to errors compared to all other procedures.