Quantum simulations and experiments on Rabi oscillations of spin qubits: Intrinsic vs extrinsic damping

Electron paramagnetic resonance experiments show that the decay of Rabi oscillations of ensembles of spin qubits depends noticeably on the microwave power, and more precisely on the Rabi frequency, an effect recently called "driven decoherence." By direct numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation of the associated many-body system, we scrutinize the different mechanisms that may lead to this type of decoherence. Assuming the effects of dissipation to be negligible (T(1) = infinity), it is shown that a system of dipolar-coupled spins with (even weak) random inhomogeneities is sufficient to explain the salient features of the experimental observations. Some experimental examples are given to illustrate the potential of the numerical simulation approach.