Phase-only control of GRAPE shaped pulses

Abstract

We compare phase-only control with phase-and-amplitude control when designing shaped pulses using the GRAPE algorithm, and explain why phase-only control has significant advantages. Trotterisation can be used to simulate amplitude modulation with phase modulation, indicating that the two approaches are fundamentally equivalent. Pulses designed by either method can be interconverted, but phase-only optimization is faster and simpler. The resulting pulses can then be converted into phase-and-amplitude form for more robust implementation if desired.