Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1704.06514 · npj Quantum Information

Autonomous calibration of single spin qubit operations

Florian Frank, Thomas Unden, Jonathan Zoller, Ressa S. Said, Tommaso Calarco, Simone Montangero, Boris Naydenov, Fedor Jelezko

Published Nov 27, 2017• 33 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Fully autonomous precise control of qubits is crucial for quantum information processing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing applications. It requires minimal human intervention on the ability to model, to predict, and to anticipate the quantum dynamics, as well as to precisely control and calibrate single qubit operations. Here, we demonstrate single qubit autonomous calibrations via closed-loop optimisations of electron spin quantum operations in diamond. The operations are examined by quantum state and process tomographic measurements at room temperature, and their performances against systematic errors are iteratively rectified by an optimal pulse engineering algorithm. We achieve an autonomous calibrated fidelity up to 1.00 on a time scale of minutes for a spin population inversion and up to 0.98 on a time scale of hours for a single qubit $$\frac{\pi }{2}$$ π 2 -rotation within the experimental error of 2%. These results manifest a full potential for versatile quantum technologies.

DOI
10.1038/s41534-017-0049-8

Related papers

Optimisation of diamond quantum processors

YunHeng Chen, Sophie Stearn, Scott Vella +2 more

Abstract Diamond quantum processors consisting of a nitrogen-vacancy centre and surrounding nuclear spins have been the key to significant advancements in room-temperature quantum computing, quantum sensing and microscopy. The optimisation of these processors is crucial for the development of large-scale diamond quantum computers and the next generation of enhanced quantum sensors and microscopes. Here, we present a full model of multi-qubit diamond quantum processors and develop a semi-analytical method for designing gate pulses. This method optimises gate speed and fidelity in the presence of random control errors and is readily compatible with feedback optimisation routines. We theoretically demonstrate infidelities approaching ∼10−5 for single-qubit gates and established evidence that this can also be achieved for a two-qubit CZ gate. Consequently, our method reduces the effects of control errors below the errors introduced by hyperfine field misalignment and the unavoidable decoherence that is intrinsic to the processors. Having developed this optimal control, we simulated the performance of a diamond quantum processor by computing quantum Fourier transforms. We find that the simulated diamond quantum processor is able to achieve fast operations with low error probability.

arXiv:2002.00545•New Journal of Physics•Sep 1, 2020•18 citations

Precise qubit control beyond the rotating wave approximation

Jochen Scheuer, Xi Kong, Ressa S. Said +9 more

Abstract Fast and accurate quantum operations of a single spin in room-temperature solids are required in many modern scientific areas, for instance in quantum information, quantum metrology, and magnetometry. However, the accuracy is limited if the Rabi frequency of the control is comparable with the transition frequency of the qubit due to the breakdown of the rotating wave approximation (RWA). We report here an experimental implementation of a control method based on quantum optimal control theory which does not suffer from such restriction. We demonstrate the most commonly used single qubit rotations, i.e. - and π-pulses, beyond the RWA regime with high fidelity and , respectively. They are in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions, and . Furthermore, we perform two basic magnetic resonance experiments both in the rotating and the laboratory frames, where we are able to deliberately ‘switch’ between the frames, to confirm the robustness of our control method. Our method is general, hence it may immediately find its wide applications in magnetic resonance, quantum computing, quantum optics, and broadband magnetometry.

arXiv:1309.4399•New Journal of Physics•Sep 19, 2014•88 citations

Fast Quantum Calibration using Bayesian Optimization with State Parameter Estimator for Non-Markovian Environment

Qian, Peng, Qamar, Shahid, Xiao Xiao +5 more

As quantum systems expand in size and complexity, manual qubit characterization and gate optimization will be a non-scalable and time-consuming venture. Physical qubits have to be carefully calibrated because quantum processors are very sensitive to the external environment, with control hardware parameters slowly drifting during operation, affecting gate fidelity. Currently, existing calibration techniques require complex and lengthy measurements to independently control the different parameters of each gate and are unscalable to large quantum systems. Therefore, fully automated protocols with the desired functionalities are required to speed up the calibration process. This paper aims to propose single-qubit calibration of superconducting qubits under continuous weak measurements from a real physical experimental settings point of view. We propose a real-time optimal estimator of qubit states, which utilizes weak measurements and Bayesian optimization to find the optimal control pulses for gate design. Our numerical results demonstrate a significant reduction in the calibration process, obtaining a high gate fidelity. Using the proposed estimator we estimated the qubit state with and without measurement noise and the estimation error between the qubit state and the estimator state is less than 0.02. With this setup, we drive an approximated pi pulse with final fidelity of 0.9928. This shows that our proposed strategy is robust against the presence of measurement and environmental noise and can also be applicable for the calibration of many other quantum computation technologies.

arXiv:2205.12929•May 25, 2022•1 citation

Robust coherent optimal control of nitrogen-vacancy quantum bits in diamond

Andreas Angerer

During the last ten years, basic quantum operations on a single electronic spins in the nitrogen-vacancy defect center in diamond have been a rich field of study. Quantum operations coherently manipulating the spin of the nitrogen-vacancy center have become promising candidates for easy to manipulate qubits. However in order to implement these qubits in quantum computers robust high-fidelity control is needed. Building on an existing confocal microscopy setup, pulsed and quadrature-amplitude modulated microwave signals were used to realize coherent spin manipulation measurements. Especially designed Smooth Optimal Control pulses (robust against detuning and different control amplitudes) were used to develop measurement schemes resulting in the aforementioned increase of fidelity. The first part of the thesis describes the implementation of these pulses into the existing experimental setup and the calibration work necessary prior to measurements, due to imperfections of devices in the microwave chain. The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the pulses applied to a single spin by comparing the experimental results to theoretical simulations. This was done not only for one resonant spin with accurate control amplitude, but also for a range of different detunings and amplitudes. A more thorough analysis of the pulses was then achieved by using state/process tomography, resulting in a complete description of the process induced by these optimized pulses. Finally, after verifying the effect of the pulses, measurement schemes for sensing alternating magnetic fields were implemented, resulting in measurements with improved sensitivity for magnetic fields.

•Mar 1, 2014•1 citation

High-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates for two-electron spin qubits

Pascal Cerfontaine

A key ingredient for fault-tolerant quantum computers are sufficiently accurate logic gates on single and multiple qubits in the presence of decohering noise. In this thesis, we theoretically develop and experimentally demonstrate such high-fidelity quantum gates for semiconductor-based quantum computing. Specifically, we consider a qubit encoded in the singlet and one triplet state of two electron spins in GaAs. While its potential for optical coupling makes GaAs an attractive material, highly auto-correlated magnetic field noise from fluctuating nuclear spins leads to considerably lower coherence times than for Si-based devices, where nuclear spins can be removed by isotopic purification. In addition to noise, the control methods used in earlier experiments are based on unrealistic approximations. For these reasons, fidelities well above 99 %, as required by current quantum error correction (QEC) schemes, have not been obtained before this thesis. To tackle these issues, we extend the filter function formalism to describe quantum gates and processes in the presence of experimentally relevant non-Markovian noise. Since this formalism can consider all relevant noise sources in a computationally efficient manner, it can be used to find optimal control pulses by numerical optimization, leading to predicted single-qubit gate fidelities of 99.9 %. Furthermore, we deal with the considerable control challenges associated with this qubit type by experimental calibration of the optimized control pulses. To this end, we extend our previous experimental gate set calibration (GSC) routine to remove systematic gate errors on an arbitrary number of qubits. We apply the numerically optimized single-qubit control pulses to our GaAs sample and experimentally calibrate them with GSC. This procedure yields an average gate fidelity of 99.50 ± 0.04 % and a low leakage rate of 0.13 ± 0.03 % out of the computational subspace, characterized by randomized benchmarking. We also optimize realistic two-qubit control pulses, considering current control hardware as well as interqubit Coulomb and exchange coupling that cannot be fully turned off. Using measured noise spectra, we show that two-qubit gate fidelities of 99.90 % can be reached in GaAs, while 99.99 % can be achieved in Si. These results demonstrate that high-fidelity gates can be realized even in the presence of nuclear spins as in GaAs.

•Jan 1, 2019•0 citations

Single spins in diamond for quantum networks and magnetic sensing

M. V. Gurudev Dutt

Building scalable quantum information systems is a central challenge facing modern science. Single spins in diamond are a promising platform for distributed quantum information networks and precision measurements. I will discuss recent progress in this field demonstrating coherent operations with coupled electron-nuclear spin quantum registers and nanoscale precision magnetometry. Our experiments demonstrate addressing, preparation, and coherent control of individual nuclear spin qubits in the diamond lattice at room temperature. We have measured spin coherence times exceeding milliseconds, and observed coherent coupling to nearby electronic and nuclear spins. Robust initialization of a two-qubit register and transfer of arbitrary quantum states between electron and nuclear spin qubits has been achieved. Our results show that coherent operations are possible with individual solid-state qubits whose coherence properties approach those for isolated atoms and ions. The resulting electron-nuclear few-qubit registers can potentially serve as small processor nodes in a quantum network where the electron spins are coupled by optical photons.

Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE•Jun 3, 2010•0 citations
Abstract Fully autonomous precise control of qubits is crucial for quantum information processing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing applications. It requires minimal human intervention on the ability to model, to predict, and to anticipate the quantum dynamics, as well as to precisely control and calibrate single qubit operations. Here, we demonstrate single qubit autonomous calibrations via closed-loop optimisations of electron spin quantum operations in diamond. The operations are examined by quantum state and process tomographic measurements at room temperature, and their performances against systematic errors are iteratively rectified by an optimal pulse engineering algorithm. We achieve an autonomous calibrated fidelity up to 1.00 on a time scale of minutes for a spin population inversion and up to 0.98 on a time scale of hours for a single qubit π2\frac{\pi }{2}2π​ π 2 -rotation within the experimental error of 2%. These results manifest a full potential for versatile quantum technologies.
Abstract Diamond quantum processors consisting of a nitrogen-vacancy centre and surrounding nuclear spins have been the key to significant advancements in room-temperature quantum computing, quantum sensing and microscopy. The optimisation of these processors is crucial for the development of large-scale diamond quantum computers and the next generation of enhanced quantum sensors and microscopes. Here, we present a full model of multi-qubit diamond quantum processors and develop a semi-analytical method for designing gate pulses. This method optimises gate speed and fidelity in the presence of random control errors and is readily compatible with feedback optimisation routines. We theoretically demonstrate infidelities approaching ∼10−5 for single-qubit gates and established evidence that this can also be achieved for a two-qubit CZ gate. Consequently, our method reduces the effects of control errors below the errors introduced by hyperfine field misalignment and the unavoidable decoherence that is intrinsic to the processors. Having developed this optimal control, we simulated the performance of a diamond quantum processor by computing quantum Fourier transforms. We find that the simulated diamond quantum processor is able to achieve fast operations with low error probability.
Abstract Fast and accurate quantum operations of a single spin in room-temperature solids are required in many modern scientific areas, for instance in quantum information, quantum metrology, and magnetometry. However, the accuracy is limited if the Rabi frequency of the control is comparable with the transition frequency of the qubit due to the breakdown of the rotating wave approximation (RWA). We report here an experimental implementation of a control method based on quantum optimal control theory which does not suffer from such restriction. We demonstrate the most commonly used single qubit rotations, i.e. - and π-pulses, beyond the RWA regime with high fidelity and , respectively. They are in excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions, and . Furthermore, we perform two basic magnetic resonance experiments both in the rotating and the laboratory frames, where we are able to deliberately ‘switch’ between the frames, to confirm the robustness of our control method. Our method is general, hence it may immediately find its wide applications in magnetic resonance, quantum computing, quantum optics, and broadband magnetometry.
As quantum systems expand in size and complexity, manual qubit characterization and gate optimization will be a non-scalable and time-consuming venture. Physical qubits have to be carefully calibrated because quantum processors are very sensitive to the external environment, with control hardware parameters slowly drifting during operation, affecting gate fidelity. Currently, existing calibration techniques require complex and lengthy measurements to independently control the different parameters of each gate and are unscalable to large quantum systems. Therefore, fully automated protocols with the desired functionalities are required to speed up the calibration process. This paper aims to propose single-qubit calibration of superconducting qubits under continuous weak measurements from a real physical experimental settings point of view. We propose a real-time optimal estimator of qubit states, which utilizes weak measurements and Bayesian optimization to find the optimal control pulses for gate design. Our numerical results demonstrate a significant reduction in the calibration process, obtaining a high gate fidelity. Using the proposed estimator we estimated the qubit state with and without measurement noise and the estimation error between the qubit state and the estimator state is less than 0.02. With this setup, we drive an approximated pi pulse with final fidelity of 0.9928. This shows that our proposed strategy is robust against the presence of measurement and environmental noise and can also be applicable for the calibration of many other quantum computation technologies.
During the last ten years, basic quantum operations on a single electronic spins in the nitrogen-vacancy defect center in diamond have been a rich field of study. Quantum operations coherently manipulating the spin of the nitrogen-vacancy center have become promising candidates for easy to manipulate qubits. However in order to implement these qubits in quantum computers robust high-fidelity control is needed. Building on an existing confocal microscopy setup, pulsed and quadrature-amplitude modulated microwave signals were used to realize coherent spin manipulation measurements. Especially designed Smooth Optimal Control pulses (robust against detuning and different control amplitudes) were used to develop measurement schemes resulting in the aforementioned increase of fidelity. The first part of the thesis describes the implementation of these pulses into the existing experimental setup and the calibration work necessary prior to measurements, due to imperfections of devices in the microwave chain. The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the pulses applied to a single spin by comparing the experimental results to theoretical simulations. This was done not only for one resonant spin with accurate control amplitude, but also for a range of different detunings and amplitudes. A more thorough analysis of the pulses was then achieved by using state/process tomography, resulting in a complete description of the process induced by these optimized pulses. Finally, after verifying the effect of the pulses, measurement schemes for sensing alternating magnetic fields were implemented, resulting in measurements with improved sensitivity for magnetic fields.
A key ingredient for fault-tolerant quantum computers are sufficiently accurate logic gates on single and multiple qubits in the presence of decohering noise. In this thesis, we theoretically develop and experimentally demonstrate such high-fidelity quantum gates for semiconductor-based quantum computing. Specifically, we consider a qubit encoded in the singlet and one triplet state of two electron spins in GaAs. While its potential for optical coupling makes GaAs an attractive material, highly auto-correlated magnetic field noise from fluctuating nuclear spins leads to considerably lower coherence times than for Si-based devices, where nuclear spins can be removed by isotopic purification. In addition to noise, the control methods used in earlier experiments are based on unrealistic approximations. For these reasons, fidelities well above 99 %, as required by current quantum error correction (QEC) schemes, have not been obtained before this thesis. To tackle these issues, we extend the filter function formalism to describe quantum gates and processes in the presence of experimentally relevant non-Markovian noise. Since this formalism can consider all relevant noise sources in a computationally efficient manner, it can be used to find optimal control pulses by numerical optimization, leading to predicted single-qubit gate fidelities of 99.9 %. Furthermore, we deal with the considerable control challenges associated with this qubit type by experimental calibration of the optimized control pulses. To this end, we extend our previous experimental gate set calibration (GSC) routine to remove systematic gate errors on an arbitrary number of qubits. We apply the numerically optimized single-qubit control pulses to our GaAs sample and experimentally calibrate them with GSC. This procedure yields an average gate fidelity of 99.50 ± 0.04 % and a low leakage rate of 0.13 ± 0.03 % out of the computational subspace, characterized by randomized benchmarking. We also optimize realistic two-qubit control pulses, considering current control hardware as well as interqubit Coulomb and exchange coupling that cannot be fully turned off. Using measured noise spectra, we show that two-qubit gate fidelities of 99.90 % can be reached in GaAs, while 99.99 % can be achieved in Si. These results demonstrate that high-fidelity gates can be realized even in the presence of nuclear spins as in GaAs.
Building scalable quantum information systems is a central challenge facing modern science. Single spins in diamond are a promising platform for distributed quantum information networks and precision measurements. I will discuss recent progress in this field demonstrating coherent operations with coupled electron-nuclear spin quantum registers and nanoscale precision magnetometry. Our experiments demonstrate addressing, preparation, and coherent control of individual nuclear spin qubits in the diamond lattice at room temperature. We have measured spin coherence times exceeding milliseconds, and observed coherent coupling to nearby electronic and nuclear spins. Robust initialization of a two-qubit register and transfer of arbitrary quantum states between electron and nuclear spin qubits has been achieved. Our results show that coherent operations are possible with individual solid-state qubits whose coherence properties approach those for isolated atoms and ions. The resulting electron-nuclear few-qubit registers can potentially serve as small processor nodes in a quantum network where the electron spins are coupled by optical photons.