Decay of Rabi oscillations by dipolar-coupled dynamical spin environments

Abstract

We investigate the Rabi oscillations decay of a spin decohered by a spin bath whose internal dynamics is caused by dipolar coupling between the bath spins. The decay form and rate as a function of the intra-bath coupling is studied analytically, and confirmed numerically. The decay in general has neither exponential/Gaussian or power-law form, and changes non-monotonically with the intra-bath coupling, decelerating for both slow and fast baths. The form and rate of Rabi oscillations decay can be used to experimentally determine the intra-bath coupling strength for a broad class of solid-state systems.