Floquet engineering of quantum relaxation

Abstract

Dynamical decoupling suppresses decoherence by averaging selected interactions between a quantum system and its environment. Here, we extend this notion through a general Floquet formalism that maps periodic control onto relaxation and dephasing channels. Environmental fluctuations are decomposed into Floquet components that sample the noise spectrum at distinct frequencies, with coupling strengths determined by control-induced Floquet coefficients. We experimentally investigate this approach using a single nitrogen-vacancy center in diamond under multi-pulse control. By tuning the drive and detuning, we reshape the coupling to environmental fluctuations and create isolated operating points where the dominant decoherence channel vanishes, strongly suppressing Floquet dephasing. The resulting coherence enhancement follows the predicted Floquet coupling coefficients and can be shifted by modifying the control sequence. These results establish Floquet driving as a general framework for engineering transverse and longitudinal relaxation through the design of quantum control protocols.