Switching off the reservoir through nonstationary quantum systems

Abstract

In this paper we demonstrate that the inevitable action of the environment can be substantially weakened when considering appropriate nonstationary quantum systems. Beyond protecting quantum states against decoherence, an oscillating frequency can be engineered to make the system-reservoir coupling almost negligible. Therefore, differently from previously-reported protecting schemes, our technique does not require a previous knowledge of the state to be protected. We show, in the domain of cavity quantum electrodynamics, how to engineer such a nonstationary cavity mode through its dispersive interaction with a driven two-level atom.