Sampled-data design for robust control of a single qubit

This technical note presents a sampled-data approach to the robust control of a single qubit (quantum bit). The required robustness is defined using a sliding mode domain and the control law is designed offline and then utilized online with a single qubit having bounded uncertainties. Two classes of uncertainties are considered involving the system Hamiltonian and the coupling strength of the system-environment interaction. Four cases are analyzed in detail including without decoherence, with amplitude damping decoherence, phase damping decoherence and depolarizing decoherence. Sampling periods are specifically designed for these cases to guarantee the required robustness. Two sufficient conditions are presented for the design of a unitary control for the cases without decoherence and with amplitude damping decoherence. The proposed approach has potential applications in quantum error-correction and in constructing robust quantum gates.