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arXiv:2211.00744 · Physical Review A

Photon scattering errors during stimulated Raman transitions in trapped-ion qubits

I. D. Moore, Wesley C. Campbell, Eric R. Hudson, Matthew Boguslawski, David J. Wineland, D. T. C. Allcock

Published Mar 15, 2023• 24 citations

Abstract

We study photon scattering errors in stimulated Raman driven quantum logic gates. For certain parameter regimes, we find that previous simplified models of the process significantly overestimate the gate error rate due to photon scattering. This overestimate is shown to be due to previous models neglecting the detuning dependence of the scattered photon frequency and Lamb-Dicke parameter, a second scattering process, interference effects on scattering rates to metastable manifolds, and the counterrotating contribution to the Raman transition rate. The resulting improved model shows that there is no fundamental limit on gate error due to photon scattering for electronic ground-state qubits in commonly used trapped-ion species when the Raman laser beams are red detuned from the main optical transition. Additionally, photon scattering errors are studied for qubits encoded in the metastable ${D}_{5/2}$ manifold, showing that gate errors below ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ are achievable for all commonly used trapped ions.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.107.032413

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We study photon scattering errors in stimulated Raman driven quantum logic gates. For certain parameter regimes, we find that previous simplified models of the process significantly overestimate the gate error rate due to photon scattering. This overestimate is shown to be due to previous models neglecting the detuning dependence of the scattered photon frequency and Lamb-Dicke parameter, a second scattering process, interference effects on scattering rates to metastable manifolds, and the counterrotating contribution to the Raman transition rate. The resulting improved model shows that there is no fundamental limit on gate error due to photon scattering for electronic ground-state qubits in commonly used trapped-ion species when the Raman laser beams are red detuned from the main optical transition. Additionally, photon scattering errors are studied for qubits encoded in the metastable

{D}_{5/2}

manifold, showing that gate errors below

{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}

are achievable for all commonly used trapped ions.

Quantum logic gates performed via two-photon stimulated Raman transitions in ions and atoms are fundamentally limited by spontaneous scattering errors. Recent theoretical treatment of these processes has predicted no lower bound on the scattering-induced error rate of such gates when implemented with far-detuned lasers, while also providing an extension to metastable qubits. To validate this theoretical model, we provide experimental measurements of Raman scattering rates due to near- and far-detuned lasers for initial states in the metastable

{D}_{5/2}

level of

^{137}\mathrm{Ba}^{+}

. The measured spontaneous Raman scattering rate is consistent with the theoretical prediction and suggests that metastable-level two-qubit gates with an error rate approximately equal to ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ are possible with laser excitation detuned by tens of terahertz or more.

Spontaneous Raman scattering from metastable states of Ba

^+

Quantum logic gates performed via two-photon stimulated-Raman transitions in ions and atoms are fundamentally limited by spontaneous scattering errors. Recent theoretical treatment of these scattering processes has predicted no lower bound on the error rate of such gates when implemented with far-detuned lasers, while also providing an extension to metastable qubits. To validate this theoretical model, we provide experimental measurements of Raman scattering rates due to near-, and far-detuned lasers for initial states in the metastable D

_{5/2}

level of

^{137}

Ba

^+

. The measured spontaneous Raman scattering rate is consistent with the theoretical prediction and suggests that metastable-level two-qubit gates with an error rate

\approx10^{-4}

are possible with laser excitation detuned by tens of terahertz or more.

We analyze the error in trapped-ion, hyperfine qubit, quantum gates due to spontaneous scattering of photons from the gate laser beams. We investigate single-qubit rotations that are based on stimulated Raman transitions and two-qubit entangling phase gates that are based on spin-dependent optical dipole forces. This error is compared between different ion species currently being investigated as possible quantum-information carriers. For both gate types we show that with attainable laser powers the scattering error can be reduced to below current estimates of the fault-tolerance error threshold.

^{133}Ba^{+} is illuminated by a laser that is far detuned from optical transitions, and the resulting spontaneous Raman scattering rate is measured. The observed scattering rate is lower than previous theoretical estimates. The majority of the discrepancy is explained by a more accurate treatment of the scattered photon density of states. This work establishes that, contrary to previous models, there is no fundamental atomic physics limit to laser-driven quantum gates from laser-induced spontaneous Raman scattering.

Metastable qubits in atomic systems can enable large-scale quantum computing by simplifying hardware requirements and adding efficient erasure conversion to the preexisting toolbox of high-fidelity laser-based control. For trapped atomic ions, the fundamental error floor of this control is given by spontaneous Raman and Rayleigh scattering from short-lived excited states. We measure spontaneous Raman scattering rates out of a metastable

{D}_{5/2}

qubit manifold of a single trapped

^{40}\mathrm{Ca}^{+}

ion illuminated by 976 nm light that is $\ensuremath{-}44$ THz detuned from the dipole-allowed transition to the

{P}_{3/2}

manifold. This supports the calculation of error rates from both types of scattering during one- and two-qubit gates on this platform, thus demonstrating that infidelities less than ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ are possible.