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arXiv:2208.00187 · New Journal of Physics

Robust two-qubit gates using pulsed dynamical decoupling

Patrick Barthel, Patrick H. Huber, Jorge Casanova, Íñigo Arrazola, Dorna Niroomand, Theeraphot Sriarunothai, Martin Bodo Plenio, Christof Wunderlich

Published May 12, 2023• 14 citations

Abstract

Abstract We present the experimental implementation of a two-qubit phase gate, using a radio frequency (RF) controlled trapped-ion quantum processor. The RF-driven gate is generated by a pulsed dynamical decoupling sequence applied to the ions’ carrier transitions only. It allows for a tunable phase shift with high-fidelity results. The conditional phase shift is measured using a Ramsey-type measurement with an inferred fringe contrast of up to 99 − 2 + 1 % . We also prepare a Bell state using this laser-free gate. The phase gate is robust against common sources of error. We investigate the effect of the excitation of the center-of-mass (COM) mode, errors in the axial trap frequency, pulse area errors and errors in sequence timing. The contrast of the phase gate is not significantly reduced up to a COM mode excitation < 20 phonons, trap frequency errors of +10%, and pulse area errors of −8%. The phase shift is not significantly affected up to < 10 phonons and pulse area errors of −2%. Both, contrast and phase shift are robust to timing errors up to −30% and +15%. The gate implementation is resource efficient, since only a single driving field is required per ion. Furthermore, it holds the potential for fast gate speeds (gate times on the order of 100 µ s) by using two axial motional modes of a two-ion crystal through improved setups.

DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/acd4db

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A novel two-qubit entangling gate for trapped-ion quantum processors is proposed theoretically and demonstrated experimentally. During the gate, double-dressed quantum states are created by applying a phase-modulated continuous driving field. The speed of this quantum gate is an order of magnitude higher than that of previously demonstrated rf controlled two-qubit entangling gates in static magnetic field gradients. At the same time, the field driving the gate dynamically decouples the qubits from amplitude and frequency noise, increasing the qubits’ coherence time by 3 orders of magnitude. The gate requires only a single continuous rf field per qubit, making it well suited for scaling a quantum processor to large numbers of qubits. Implementing this entangling gate, we generate the Bell states | Φ + ⟩ and | Ψ + ⟩ in less than or equal to 313 μ s with fidelities up to 98 − 3 + 2 % in a static magnetic gradient of only 19.09 T / m . At higher magnetic field gradients, the entangling gate speed can be further improved to match that of laser-based counterparts.

A proposal for a phase gate and a Mølmer–Sørensen gate in the dressed state basis is presented. In order to perform the multi-qubit interaction, a strong magnetic field gradient is required to couple the phonon-bus to the qubit states. The gate is performed using resonant microwave driving fields together with either a radio-frequency (RF) driving field, or additional detuned microwave driving fields. The gate is robust to ambient magnetic field fluctuations due to an applied resonant microwave driving field. Furthermore, the gate is robust to fluctuations in the microwave Rabi frequency and is decoupled from phonon dephasing due to a resonant RF or a detuned microwave driving field. This makes this new gate an attractive candidate for the implementation of high-fidelity microwave based multi-qubit gates. The proposal can also be realized in laser-based set-ups.

A proposal for a phase gate and a Mølmer–Sørensen gate in the dressed state basis is presented. In order to perform the multi-qubit interaction, a strong magnetic field gradient is required to couple the phonon-bus to the qubit states. The gate is performed using resonant microwave driving fields together with either a radio-frequency (RF) driving field, or additional detuned microwave driving fields. The gate is robust to ambient magnetic field fluctuations due to an applied resonant microwave driving field. Furthermore, the gate is robust to fluctuations in the microwave Rabi frequency and is decoupled from phonon dephasing due to a resonant RF or a detuned microwave driving field. This makes this new gate an attractive candidate for the implementation of high-fidelity microwave based multi-qubit gates. The proposal can also be realized in laser-based set-ups.

Microwave-driven logic is a promising alternative to laser control in scaling trapped-ion based quantum processors. We implement Mølmer-Sørensen two-qubit gates on 43 Ca + hyperfine clock qubits in a cryogenic ( ≈ 25 K ) surface trap, driven by near-field microwaves. We achieve gate durations of 154 µs [with 1.0(2)% error] and 331 µs [0.5(1)% error], which approaches the performance of typical laser-driven gates. In the 331 µs gate, we demonstrate a Walsh-modulated dynamical decoupling scheme which suppresses errors due to fluctuations in the qubit frequency as well as imperfections in the decoupling drive itself. Published by the American Physical Society 2024