Experimental realization of direct characterization of quantum dynamics

We experimentally implement direct characterization of quantum dynamics (DCQD) algorithm of a single qubit proposed in M. Mohseni and D. A. Lidar [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 170501 (2006)], which does not require quantum state tomography. The number of experimental configurations is reduced by a factor of 2 compared with that of standard quantum process tomography, which can be increased four times with an ideal Bell state analyzer. We combine the DCQD algorithm with maximum-likelihood estimation to give the physical characterization of quantum dynamics. It can also be applied to obtaining partial information about quantum dynamics.