Abstract For the quantum error correction and noisy intermediate-scale quantum algorithms to function with high efficiency, the raw fidelity of quantum logic gates on physical qubits needs to satisfy strict requirements. The neutral atom quantum computing equipped with Rydberg blockade gates has made impressive progress recently, which makes it worthwhile to explore its potential in the two-qubit entangling gates, including the controlled-phase gate, and in particular, the CZ gate. Provided the quantum coherence is well preserved, improving the fidelity of Rydberg blockade gates calls for special mechanisms to deal with adverse effects caused by realistic experimental conditions. Here, the heralded very-high-fidelity Rydberg blockade controlled-phase gate is designed to address these issues, which contains self-correction and projection as the key steps. This trailblazing method builds upon the previously established buffer-atom-mediated gate framework, with a special form of symmetry under parity–time transformation playing a crucial role in the process. We further analyze the performance with respect to a few typical sources of imperfections. This procedure can also be regarded as quantum hardware error correction or mitigation. While this paper by itself does not cover every single subtle issue and still contains many oversimplifications, we find it reasonable to anticipate a very-high-fidelity two-qubit quantum logic gate operated in the sense of heralded but probabilistic, whose gate error can be reduced to the level of 10−4–10−6 or even lower with reasonably high possibilities.
Abstract For the quantum error correction and noisy intermediate-scale quantum algorithms to function with high efficiency, the raw fidelity of quantum logic gates on physical qubits needs to satisfy strict requirements. The neutral atom quantum computing equipped with Rydberg blockade gates has made impressive progress recently, which makes it worthwhile to explore its potential in the two-qubit entangling gates, including the controlled-phase gate, and in particular, the CZ gate. Provided the quantum coherence is well preserved, improving the fidelity of Rydberg blockade gates calls for special mechanisms to deal with adverse effects caused by realistic experimental conditions. Here, the heralded very-high-fidelity Rydberg blockade controlled-phase gate is designed to address these issues, which contains self-correction and projection as the key steps. This trailblazing method builds upon the previously established buffer-atom-mediated gate framework, with a special form of symmetry under parity–time transformation playing a crucial role in the process. We further analyze the performance with respect to a few typical sources of imperfections. This procedure can also be regarded as quantum hardware error correction or mitigation. While this paper by itself does not cover every single subtle issue and still contains many oversimplifications, we find it reasonable to anticipate a very-high-fidelity two-qubit quantum logic gate operated in the sense of heralded but probabilistic, whose gate error can be reduced to the level of 10−4–10−6 or even lower with reasonably high possibilities.
Abstract The ability to perform entangling quantum operations with low error rates in a scalable fashion is a central element of useful quantum information processing 1 . Neutral-atom arrays have recently emerged as a promising quantum computing platform, featuring coherent control over hundreds of qubits 2,3 and any-to-any gate connectivity in a flexible, dynamically reconfigurable architecture 4 . The main outstanding challenge has been to reduce errors in entangling operations mediated through Rydberg interactions 5 . Here we report the realization of two-qubit entangling gates with 99.5% fidelity on up to 60 atoms in parallel, surpassing the surface-code threshold for error correction 6,7 . Our method uses fast, single-pulse gates based on optimal control 8 , atomic dark states to reduce scattering 9 and improvements to Rydberg excitation and atom cooling. We benchmark fidelity using several methods based on repeated gate applications 10,11 , characterize the physical error sources and outline future improvements. Finally, we generalize our method to design entangling gates involving a higher number of qubits, which we demonstrate by realizing low-error three-qubit gates 12,13 . By enabling high-fidelity operation in a scalable, highly connected system, these advances lay the groundwork for large-scale implementation of quantum algorithms 14 , error-corrected circuits 7 and digital simulations 15 .
The fidelity of entangling operations is a key figure of merit in quantum information processing, especially in the context of quantum error correction. High-fidelity entangling gates in neutral atoms have seen remarkable advancement recently. A full understanding of error sources and their respective contributions to gate infidelity will enable the prediction of fundamental limits on quantum gates in neutral atom platforms with realistic experimental constraints. In this work, we implement the time-optimal Rydberg controlled-Z (CZ) gate, design a circuit to benchmark its fidelity, and achieve a fidelity, averaged over symmetric input states, of 0.9971 ( 5 ) , downward corrected for leakage error, which together with our recent work [Nature 634, 321–327 (2024)] forms a new state of the art for neutral atoms. The remaining infidelity is explained by an error model, consistent with our experimental results over a range of gate speeds, with varying contributions from different error sources. Further, we develop a fidelity response theory to efficiently predict infidelity from laser noise with nontrivial power spectral densities and derive scaling laws of infidelity with gate speed. Besides its capability of predicting gate fidelity, we also utilize the fidelity response theory to compare and optimize gate protocols, to learn laser frequency noise, and to study the noise response for quantum simulation tasks. Finally, we predict that a CZ gate fidelity of ≳ 0.999 is feasible with realistic experimental upgrades.
The neutral atom platform has become an attractive choice to study the science of quantum information and quantum simulation, where intense efforts have been devoted to the entangling processes between individual atoms. A two-qubit controlled-phase gate via Rydberg blockade is one of the most essential elements. Recent theoretical studies have suggested the advantages of introducing nontrivial waveform modulation into the gate protocol, which is anticipated to improve its performance towards the next stage. We report our recent experimental results in realizing the two-qubit controlled-phase (CZ) gate via single-modulated-pulse off-resonant modulated driving embedded in a two-photon transition for Rb atoms. It relies on a global driving laser pulse with a carefully calculated smooth waveform to gain the appropriate phase accumulations required by CZ gate. Combining this CZ gate with global microwave pulses, two-atom entanglement is generated with the raw fidelity of 0.945(6). After accounting for state preparation and measurement errors, we extract the entanglement operation fidelity to be 0.980(7). Our work features completing the CZ gate operation within a single pulse to avoid shelved population in the Rydberg levels, thus demonstrating another promising route for realizing a high-fidelity two-qubit gate for the neutral atom platform.
A neutral-atom system serves as a promising platform for realizing gate-based quantum computing because of its capability to trap and control several atomic qubits in different geometries and the ability to perform strong, long-range interactions between qubits; however, the two-qubit entangling gate fidelity lags behind competing platforms such as superconducting systems and trapped ions. The aim of our work is to design a fast, robust, high-fidelity controlled-Z (cz) gate, based on the Rydberg-blockade mechanism, for neutral atoms. We propose a gate procedure that relies on simultaneous and transitionless quantum driving of a pair of atoms using broadband lasers. By simulating a system of two interacting cesium atoms, including spontaneous emission from excited levels and parameter fluctuations, we yield a Rydberg-blockade cz gate with fidelity 0.9985 over an operation time of $0.12\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{\textmu{}s}$. Our gate procedure delivers cz gates that are superior than the state-of-the-art experimental cz gate and the simulated cz gates based on adiabatic driving of atoms. Our results show that our gate procedure carries significant potential for achieving scalable quantum computing using neutral atoms.
For neutral-atom qubits, two-qubit gates are typically realized via the Rydberg-blockade effect, which hints at the special status of Rydberg levels compared with regular qubit register states. However, the experimental and theoretical studies that have been done to reveal how the ground-Rydberg coherence of the control-qubit atom affects the fidelity of a two-qubit gate are not yet adequate, especially when all experimental two-qubit gates feature a single atom that stays in the Rydberg state for a certain time. Here, we perform a careful investigation of decoherence in ground-Rydberg transitions in a single atom with various pulse sequences. In particular, based on the commonly used controlled-Z (CZ) gate sequence proposed by D. Jaksch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2208 (2000), we observe that a control-qubit atom subject to a two-qubit entangling process with the H-CZ controlled-not gate scheme experiences a process that is essentially similar to ground-Rydberg Ramsey interference. Then, we build a straightforward theoretical model to link the decoherence time ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{\mathrm{gr}}$ of the control qubit (extracted from Ramsey fringes of the ground-Rydberg transition) to this CZ pulse sequence, and also analyze the typical origins of decoherence effects. Finally, we discuss the loss of fidelity of the CZ gate due to the limits imposed by the ground-Rydberg coherence properties, and the prospect of improving fidelity with refined gate protocols.
The Rydberg blockade mechanism is now routinely considered for entangling qubits encoded in clock states of neutral atoms. Challenges towards implementing entangling gates with high fidelity include errors due to thermal motion of atoms, laser amplitude inhomogeneities, and imperfect Rydberg blockade. We show that adiabatic rapid passage by Rydberg dressing provides a mechanism for implementing two-qubit entangling gates by accumulating phases that are robust to these imperfections. We find that the typical error in implementing a two-qubit gate, such as the controlled phase gate, is dominated by errors in the single-atom light shift, and that this can be easily corrected using adiabatic dressing interleaved with a simple spin echo sequence. This results in a two-qubit M\o{}lmer-S\o{}rensen gate. A gate fidelity $\ensuremath{\sim}0.995$ is achievable with modest experimental parameters and a path to higher fidelities is possible for Rydberg states in atoms with a stronger blockade, longer lifetimes, and larger Rabi frequencies.