Accelerating decay by multiple 2π pulses

Abstract

We show how a control of the dynamics of a decay process can be achieved by the application of a series of 2π pulses on an auxiliary transition. The 2π pulse changes the phase of the ground state by π while leaving the phase of the excited state unaltered. This produces quantum interferences between the transition amplitudes for evolution in the short interval, just before and after the 2π pulse. Such an interference under suitable tailoring of the density-of-states of the bath and the time T leads to accelerated decay.