Decoherence-free propagation and ramification of a solitary pulse

Abstract

Using a microscopic master equation to account for the environmental effects, we compute the decoherence culminated during the propagation of a microwave pulse of arbitrary shape through a superconducting qubit. It is shown that the qubit decoherence vanishes and the pulse shape remains absorption-free when the latter adopts a soliton shape with $n\pi$ area. Otherwise, the environmental feedback decelerates the velocity of the soliton envelop and induces an monotonic increase of phase in the microwave. A pulse of non-$n\pi$ area thus ramifies into a transparent part that travels decoherence-free at incident velocity and a slowing part that decays through space. The ramification explains the environmental origin of pulse splitting observed in self-induced transparency.