Hyperfine-encoded qubits in alkali atoms have established themselves as robust platforms for quantum computing, while alkaline-earth-like elements expand the state manipulation toolbox through their rich spectrum of optical transitions and metastable states. In this work, we demonstrate that thulium is a viable candidate for quantum computing, combining advantages of hyperfine qubit encoding with a rich energy-level structure of alkaline-earth-like atoms. We describe protocols for the initial state preparation and state-selective readout, and show single-qubit operations on the microwave transition at 1497 MHz. We demonstrate ground-state hyperfine qubit coherence times up to T 2 ∗ = 22 − 2 + 2 s and T 2 = 55 − 14 + 59 s, representing record-scale performance for neutral-atom systems. Furthermore, we show operations involving metastable optical states, including shelving for the state-selective readout as well as coherent population transfer of the ground-state qubit with coherence time primarily limited by the metastable level natural lifetime of 112 ms. These results mark the first step toward using thulium for quantum computing applications and highlight its promising characteristics.
Hyperfine-encoded qubits in alkali atoms have established themselves as robust platforms for quantum computing, while alkaline-earth-like elements expand the state manipulation toolbox through their rich spectrum of optical transitions and metastable states. In this work, we demonstrate that thulium is a viable candidate for quantum computing, combining advantages of hyperfine qubit encoding with a rich energy-level structure of alkaline-earth-like atoms. We describe protocols for the initial state preparation and state-selective readout, and show single-qubit operations on the microwave transition at 1497 MHz. We demonstrate ground-state hyperfine qubit coherence times up to T 2 ∗ = 22 − 2 + 2 s and T 2 = 55 − 14 + 59 s, representing record-scale performance for neutral-atom systems. Furthermore, we show operations involving metastable optical states, including shelving for the state-selective readout as well as coherent population transfer of the ground-state qubit with coherence time primarily limited by the metastable level natural lifetime of 112 ms. These results mark the first step toward using thulium for quantum computing applications and highlight its promising characteristics.
We report on the first realization of a novel neutral atom qubit encoded in the spin-orbit coupled metastable states ^{3}P_{0} and ^{3}P_{2} of a single ^{88}Sr atom trapped in an optical tweezer. Raman coupling of the qubit states promises rapid single-qubit rotations on par with the fast Rydberg-mediated two-body gates. We demonstrate preparation, readout, and coherent control of the qubit. In addition to driving Rabi oscillations bridging an energy gap of more than 17 THz using a pair of phase-locked clock lasers, we also carry out Ramsey spectroscopy to extract the transverse qubit coherence time T_{2}. When the tweezer is tuned into magic trapping conditions, which is achieved in our setup by tuning the tensor polarizability of the ^{3}P_{2} state via an external control magnetic field, we measure T_{2}=1.2 ms. A microscopic quantum mechanical model is used to simulate our experiments including dominant noise sources. We identify the main constraints limiting the observed coherence time and project improvements to our system in the immediate future. Our Letter opens the door for a so-far-unexplored qubit encoding concept for neutral atom-based quantum computing.
We present a spectroscopic investigation of 169Tm+ that provides two key foundations for its use as a platform for advanced quantum applications. First, we establish the complete spectroscopic road map for optical cycling (including laser cooling) by performing high-resolution spectroscopy on 169Tm+ ions in an ion trap. We characterize the primary 313nm and complementary 448/453nm cycling transitions, identify the essential near-infrared repumping frequencies, and determine the magnetic-dipole hyperfine A constants for all relevant levels. Second, we report a detailed characterization of a metastable state as a candidate for hosting a robust qubit, performing lifetime measurements and Zeeman-resolved microwave hyperfine spectroscopy with kHz precision.
Ultracold neutral atoms in optical lattices are rich systems for the investigation of many-body physics as well as for the implementation of quantum information processing. While traditionally alkali atoms were used for this research, in recent years alkaline-earth-like atoms have attracted considerable interest. This is due to their more complex but tractable internal structure and easily accessible transitions. Furthermore, alkaline-earth-like atoms have extremely narrow 1S→3P intercombination transitions, which lend themselves for the implementation of next generation atomic clocks. In this dissertation, I show that exquisite control of alkaline-earth-like atoms can be reached with optical methods, and elucidate ways to use this controllability to further different aspects of research, mainly quantum information processing. Additionally, the control of alkaline-earth-like atoms is very interesting in many-body physics and the improvement of atomic clocks. Since heating usually degrades the performance of quantum gates, recooling of qubits is a necessity for the implementation of large scale quantum computers. Laser cooling has advantages over the usually used sympathetic cooling, given that it requires no additional atoms, which have to be controlled separately. However, for qubits stored in hyperfine states, as usually done in alkali atoms, laser cooling leads to optical pumping and therefore to loss of coherence. On the other hand, in the ground state, the nuclear spin of alkaline-earth-like atoms is decoupled from the electronic degrees of freedom. As I show in this dissertation, this allows for the storage of quantum information in the nuclear spin and laser cooling on the electronic degrees of freedom. The recooling protocol suggested here consists of two steps: resolved sideband cooling on the extremely narrow 1S0→3P0 clock transition and subsequent quenching on the much shorter lived 1P1 state. A magnetic field is used to overcome the hyperfine interaction in this excited state and thus ensures decoupling of the nuclear spin degrees of freedom during the quenching. The application of this magnetic field also allows for photon scattering on the 1P1 state, while preserving the nuclear spin, e. g. for electronic qubit detection. The manipulation of the scattering properties of neutral atoms is an important aspect of quantum control. In contrast to alkali atoms, whose broad linewidths cause large losses, this can be done with purely optical methods via the implementation of an optical Feshbach resonance for alkaline-earth-like atoms. Here, the scattering length resulting from the application of an optical Feshbach resonance on the 1S0→3P1 intercombination line, including hyperfine interaction and rotation is calculated for 171Yb. Due to their different parities, the p-wave scattering length can be controlled independently from the s-wave scattering length, thus allowing for unprecedented control over the scattering properties of neutral atoms. Furthermore, I also show how optical Feshbach resonances in alkaline-earth-like atoms can be used together with the underlying quantum symmetry to implement collisional gates between nuclear-spin qubits over comparatively long ranges.
Qubits encoded in the electronic states of single atoms trapped in arrays of optical tweezers are a promising platform for a universal quantum computer. These qubits can be prepared in a well-defined quantum state, coherently manipulated using a nearresonant driving field, and their state detected with high fidelity. The most promising aspect of this platform is the large scalability, with arrays of up to 6100 qubits demonstrated[62].We present our progress in developing such a system with an array of single 85Rbatoms. We provide an overview of the experimental setup constructed for this purpose. Typically 50 atoms are loaded from a MOT into a 10×10 array of optical tweezers with sub-micrometer waists, with only a single atom present in a tweezer. The occupation of the tweezers is determined using a fluorescence image. We provide a characterisation of the trapping potentials experienced by the atoms. This characterisation is performed by measuring properties of the atoms in the tweezers, allowing for an in situ characterisation. In particular, the trap depth and trap frequencies were characterised. The temperature of the atoms after the initial fluorescence image was determined using the release and recapture technique [101] and the trapping lifetime of the atom was measured. With the ability to prepare, manipulate, and read out the electronic state of the atoms, an array of hyperfine qubits has been created. The qubits are encoded in the hyperfine clock states as |0⟩ := 52S1/2 |F = 2,mF = 0⟩ and |1⟩ := 52S1/2 |F = 3,mF = 0⟩. These long-lived first-order Zeeman shift insensitive states exhibit good coherence times, which we have characterized as T1=205 ± 3 ms , T2* = 2.01 ± 0.02 ms, andT2 echo = 67.1 ± 0.1 ms. State preparation is achieved by repetitions of optical and microwave pulses, to which the |0⟩ state is dark, allowing for population to accumulate in this state. The coherent evolution of the qubits have been performed using 3.035 GHz microwave radiation. The antenna used to produce this radiation is a home-built fullwave loop antenna. The antenna has allowed for addressing the qubits with Rabi frequencies up to Ω/2π ≈ 160 kHz. We have implemented the single-qubit Clifford gates using the global microwave drive. We determine using randomized benchmarking an166 Summary average gate fidelity of 0.99949(3), limited by Rabi frequency inhomogeneity over the array. To combat this fidelity limitation, we repeated the randomized benchmarking using the pulse length error robust SCROFULOUS pulses [135], which resulted in an increased gate fidelity of 0.999653(5). As a further extension of the capabilities of the system, we demonstrated a preliminary implementation of addressing a single atom int he array by applying a local Rz rotation to the selected qubit using a Stark shifting laser. The high level of control of the microwave radiation has allowed for an experimental verification of control noise-fidelity relations proposed by [115]. We have found good agreement between the experimentally measured fidelities and the proposed analytical relations developed using the stochastic Schrödinger equation. As a preliminary step towards implementing a two-qubit gate, we have performed coherent excitation of the |1⟩ state to the |r ⟩ :=602S1/2 |mJ = −1/2> Rydberg state using an off-resonant two-photon excitation. The low contrast of the Rabi oscillations on the |1⟩↔|r ⟩ transition was investigated using a simple Lindblad master equation based model. The largest contributors to the reduced contrast is SPAM error, intermediate state scattering and laser phase noise. Since Rydberg atoms interact via the van der Waals interaction, the spacing between atoms must be deterministically controlled. For this purpose, we have used an additional optical tweezer which can be dynamically moved using an acousto-optic deflector to rearrange the stochastically filled array into a desired configuration. By placing 2 atoms a distance ≈ 5 μm apart, we have demonstrated the p2 enhancement of the Rabi oscillation on the |1⟩↔|r ⟩ transition, a required first step towards implementing an entangling gate between the hyperfine qubits. To extend the temperature-limited T2* coherence time, we have implemented Λ-enhanced gray molasses cooling. We have opted to perform this cooling on the D2line as it is experimentally convenient to use this transition. Because using this transition for this purpose has not been reported in this isotope of Rb, we studied the efficacy of this cooling scheme under these circumstances. The reduced excited state hyperfine splitting of 85Rb compared to 87Rb has allowed for the study of the efficacy of this technique in the presence of additional transitions that may inhibit the cooling performance. Despite the challenges of the smaller hyperfine splitting, we have cooled the atoms to4.0±0.2 μK. This additional cooling is partially negated by the heating from the qubit state preparation procedure, but the additional cooling has allowed for the average T2*to be extended from ⟨T2*⟩ = 3.4 ± 0.1 ms to ⟨T2*⟩ = 5.3 ± 0.2 ms.
A Dual Metastable-State Encoding Architecture for Quantum Processing with 171Yb Atom Arrays
Neutral-atom arrays combine scalable qubit registers, long coherence times, flexible optical control, and strong Rydberg-mediated entangling interactions, making them a promising platform for quantum information processing. However, physical error rates remain a challenge, and fault-tolerant quantum error correction (QEC) requires repeated mid-circuit measurement and reset of ancilla qubits without disturbing nearby data qubits. This requirement introduces significant control and architectural overhead, making qubit encoding an important architectural decision. Here, we propose a dual metastable-state qubit encoding for 171Yb atoms that utilizes two independent qubit subspaces in the (6s6p)3P0 and (6s6p)3P2 manifolds. The 3P0 manifold provides a long-coherence nuclear-spin (NS) qubit suitable for storage and arithmetic operations, while the 3P2 manifold provides a hyperfine-spin (HF) qubit, with ΔHF=2π×6.7GHz, that enables fast Raman operations and direct state-selective imaging. Coherent shelving between the two metastable manifolds connects the qubit subspaces, allowing operations to be assigned to spectrally distinct processor zones. We simulate single-qubit and two-qubit gate fidelities in 3P2, as well as coherent shelving between the HF and NS qubit subspaces. We incorporate these physical-level estimates into an architectural resource estimation and logical-level simulation. Our approach integrates mid-circuit measurements and fast qubit operations within a single-species platform, providing a versatile framework for future fault-tolerant quantum computing with neutral-atom qubits.
For quantum-information processing (QIP) with trapped ions, the isotope 43Ca+ offers the combined advantages of a quantum memory with long coherence time, a high-fidelity readout, and the possibility of performing two-qubit gates on a quadrupole transition with a narrow-band laser. Compared to other ions used for quantum computing, 43Ca+ has a relatively complicated level structure. We discuss how to meet the basic requirements for QIP and demonstrate ground-state cooling, robust state initialization, and efficient readout for the hyperfine qubit with a single 43Ca+ ion. A microwave field and a Raman light field are used to drive qubit transitions, and the coherence times for both fields are compared. Phase errors due to interferometric instabilities in the Raman field generation do not limit the experiments on a time scale of 100 ms. We find a quantum-information storage time of many seconds for the hyperfine qubit.