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arXiv:2608.13181

Mid-circuit ground-state cooling and ancilla readout in the $\textit{omg}$ architecture

Sean Brudney, Connor Burns, Gabriel J. Gregory, Evan Ritchie, David J. Wineland, David T. C. Allcock, Jameson O'Reilly

quant-phSubmitted Aug 13, 2026• Announced Aug 14, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

The trapped-ion optical-metastable-ground ($\textit{omg}$) architecture for quantum processors promises the full functionality of two-species experiments, including sympathetic cooling and non-destructive ancilla readout, without the corresponding hardware overhead. We confirm that we can cool a global motional mode of a mixed metastable-ground state Coulomb crystal to the motional ground state via dissipative operations on the ground ($\textit{g}$) qubit without disturbing coherence of the metastable ($\textit{m}$) qubit. This enables quantum logic spectroscopy to non-destructively readout the state of the $\textit{m}$ qubit using fluorescence detection of the $\textit{g}$ qubit. Extensions of these demonstrations to larger system sizes should enable the mitigation of motional heating after ion shuttling and syndrome extraction for quantum error correction, both crucial primitives for future fault-tolerant quantum computers based on trapped ions.

Comments
16 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables

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Mid-circuit ground-state cooling and ancilla readout in the omg\textit{omg}omg architecture
The trapped-ion optical-metastable-ground (omg\textit{omg}omg) architecture for quantum processors promises the full functionality of two-species experiments, including sympathetic cooling and non-destructive ancilla readout, without the corresponding hardware overhead. We confirm that we can cool a global motional mode of a mixed metastable-ground state Coulomb crystal to the motional ground state via dissipative operations on the ground (g\textit{g}g) qubit without disturbing coherence of the metastable (m\textit{m}m) qubit. This enables quantum logic spectroscopy to non-destructively readout the state of the m\textit{m}m qubit using fluorescence detection of the g\textit{g}g qubit. Extensions of these demonstrations to larger system sizes should enable the mitigation of motional heating after ion shuttling and syndrome extraction for quantum error correction, both crucial primitives for future fault-tolerant quantum computers based on trapped ions.
We implement mid-circuit operations in a 48-site array of neutral atoms, enabled by new methods for control of the omg\textit{omg}omg (optical-metastable-ground state qubit) architecture present in 171{}^{171}171Yb. We demonstrate laser-based control of ground, metastable and optical qubits with average single-qubit fidelities of Fg=99.968(3)F_{g} = 99.968(3)Fg​=99.968(3), Fm=99.12(4)F_{m} = 99.12(4)Fm​=99.12(4) and Fo=99.804(8)F_{o} = 99.804(8)Fo​=99.804(8). With state-sensitive shelving between the ground and metastable states, we realize a non-destructive state-detection for 171^{171}171Yb, and reinitialize in the ground state with either global control or local feed-forward operations. We use local addressing of the optical clock transition to perform mid-circuit operations, including measurement, spin reset, and motional reset in the form of ground-state cooling. In characterizing mid-circuit measurement on ground-state qubits, we observe raw errors of 1.8(6)%1.8(6)\%1.8(6)% on ancilla qubits and 4.5(1.0)%4.5(1.0)\%4.5(1.0)% on data qubits, with the former (latter) uncorrected for 1.0(2)%1.0(2)\%1.0(2)% (2.0(2)%2.0(2)\%2.0(2)%) preparation and measurement error; we observe similar performance for mid-circuit reset operations. The reported realization of the omg\textit{omg}omg architecture and mid-circuit operations are door-opening for many tasks in quantum information science, including quantum error-correction, entanglement generation, and metrology.
Trapped ions offer a controlled and versatile platform for the simulation of spin and spin-boson quantum systems. The Coulomb interaction between ions trapped in a harmonic potential can be used to mediate interactions between effective spins in the ion chain. Generally, coherent operations on ions are performed on ground-state qubits encoded in magnetically insensitive hyperfine sublevels. In this thesis, we extend this toolbox with the aim of simultaneously manipulating both ground-state and optical qubits, with the latter encoded in metastable optically excited states. The optical qubit provides another set of coherent and dissipative operations that can be performed on the ions, opening new avenues for quantum computing and simulation. In our experiment, we use 171Yb+ and 172Yb+ ions to encode ground-state and optical qubits. We discuss the laser setup needed to address the narrow quadrupole transition from 2S1/2 →2 D3/2 of 3.02 Hz linewidth, and we describe spectroscopy techniques to study this transition in both the isotopes. We describe how the low linewidth allows resolved sideband cooling on the shared motional modes in an ion chain, enabling sympathetic cooling with one ion, 172Yb+ , while simultaneously performing coherent operations on the 171Yb+ ion. Finally, we discuss the prospects of using this tool for light-shift entangling gates, showing the flexibility of this trapped-ion system for simulating coherent as well as dissipative quantum systems.
Trapped ions are a powerful and flexible platform used for scientific applications ranging from studies of fundamental physics and precision spectroscopy to quantum simulation and quantum information processing. These applications are enabled by the excellent control that can be exerted over the long-lived atomic states of trapped ions using electromagnetic fields. In crystals containing multiple ions, the shared motion is used as a mediator to couple the atomic states of distant ions. This thesis focuses on improving the control over ion motion, and in particular for crystals that contain multiple ion species. The first set of experiments discussed in this thesis is the application of a ground-state cooling method known as electromagnetically-induced-transparency (EIT) cooling to 25Mg+. This ion has a complex hyperfine structure which enables the implementation of a long-lived qubit. By demonstrating EIT cooling on 25Mg+, it is shown that such qubit ions are also compatible with this resource-efficient sub-Doppler cooling method. The normal modes of trapped-ion motion are well-described by quantum harmonic oscillators, and the second set of experiments described in this thesis covers the direct, rapid, and parametric coupling between two harmonic oscillators in the motion modes of multi-ion crystals. This coupling can be used to indirectly cool ion modes that are otherwise difficult or inefficient to cool. It can also be used to perform mid-circuit non-destructive readout of trapped-ion motion, which is useful for the study of states encoded in the ion motion, such as those used for bosonic error correction.
Coherent storage of quantum information is crucial to many quantum technologies. Long coherence times have been demonstrated in trapped-ion qubits, typically using the hyperfine levels within the ground state of a single ion. However, recent research suggests qubits encoded in metastable states could provide architectural benefits for quantum information processing, such as the possibility of effective dual-species operation in a single-species system and erasure-error conversion for fault-tolerant quantum computing. Here we demonstrate long-lived encoding of a quantum state in the metastable states of a trapped ion. By sympathetically cooling with another ion of the same species and constantly monitoring for erasure errors, we demonstrate a coherence time of 136(42) seconds with a qubit encoded in the metastable 5D5/25D_{5/2}5D5/2​ state of a single 137^{137}137Ba+^++ ion. In agreement with a model based on empirical results from dynamical-decoupling-based noise spectroscopy, we find that dephasing of the metastable levels is the dominant source of error once erasure errors are removed.
Owing to their high controllability and connectivity, one-dimensional ion chains are attractive building blocks for near-term quantum computers. However, long ion chains are susceptible to motional heating caused by fluctuating external electric fields. To enable deep computations, this source of noise must be suppressed without inducing qubit decoherence or degrading qubit connectivity. We demonstrate steady-state mid-circuit sympathetic cooling of all computationally-relevant motional modes of a 23-ion chain consisting of \qubit qubit and \coolant coolant ions without using any qubit operations. In a room-temperature system, our cooling scheme preserves the mean phonon occupations of the long-wavelength axial and radial modes near their values following state preparation, while keeping the modes used to implement entangling gates near their ground states throughout a 56-ms circuit. Crucially, we show that our cooling sequence preserves qubit coherence, and evaluate its impact on single- and two-qubit gate operations. Additionally, we demonstrate a parallel qubit reset protocol leveraging the shared radial mode coupling between species. Our sympathetic cooling scheme represents a critical step toward reducing gate errors in individually-addressed long ion chains and establishes a versatile platform for simulating open quantum systems.
Today's most advanced ion trap quantum computers have significant overhead due to the need for dual-species operation. Looking ahead, logical qubit register sizes will be limited by the encoding rate needed to correct generic Pauli errors. We address both of these issues by establishing high-fidelity control of metastable qubits, a key component of \textit{omg} or dual-type architectures, which enables converting a significant fraction of gate errors to erasures. We first implement an erasure conversion scheme which enables detection of ∼94%\sim 94\%∼94% of spontaneous Raman scattering errors during logic gates and nearly all errors from qubit decay. Second, we perform a two-ion geometric phase gate using far-detuned (-44\,THz) stimulated Raman transitions to produce an entangled state with a raw Bell state fidelity of 97.73\% and a SPAM-corrected Bell state fidelity of 98.61\%. When subtracting erasure errors, this fidelity becomes 99.16\%. These results, along with projections based on our detailed error budget, demonstrate metastable trapped-ion qubits as a platform for low-overhead, fault-tolerant quantum computing.