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Physics

Trapped Ions Make Impeccable Qubits

Jungsang Kim

Published Nov 24, 2014• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We implement all single-qubit operations with fidelities significantly above the minimum threshold required for fault-tolerant quantum computing, using a trapped-ion qubit stored in hyperfine "atomic clock" states of 43 Ca þ .We measure a combined qubit state preparation and single-shot readout fidelity of 99.93%, a memory coherence time of T Ã 2 ¼ 50 sec, and an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9999%.These results are achieved in a room-temperature microfabricated surface trap, without the use of magnetic field shielding or dynamic decoupling techniques to overcome technical noise.

DOI
10.1103/physics.7.119

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arXiv:1512.04600•Dec 14, 2015•7 citations
We implement all single-qubit operations with fidelities significantly above the minimum threshold required for fault-tolerant quantum computing, using a trapped-ion qubit stored in hyperfine "atomic clock" states of 43 Ca þ .We measure a combined qubit state preparation and single-shot readout fidelity of 99.93%, a memory coherence time of T Ã 2 ¼ 50 sec, and an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9999%.These results are achieved in a room-temperature microfabricated surface trap, without the use of magnetic field shielding or dynamic decoupling techniques to overcome technical noise.
We implement all single-qubit operations with fidelities significantly above the minimum threshold required for fault-tolerant quantum computing, using a trapped-ion qubit stored in hyperfine "atomic clock" states of ^{43}Ca^{+}. We measure a combined qubit state preparation and single-shot readout fidelity of 99.93%, a memory coherence time of T_{2}^{*}=50 sec, and an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9999%. These results are achieved in a room-temperature microfabricated surface trap, without the use of magnetic field shielding or dynamic decoupling techniques to overcome technical noise.
We report the achievement of single-qubit gates with sub-part-per-million error rates, in a trapped-ion ^{43}Ca^{+} hyperfine clock qubit. We explore the speed and fidelity trade-off for gate times 4.4≤t_{g}≤35 μs, and benchmark a minimum error per Clifford gate of 1.5(4)×10^{-7}. Calibration errors are suppressed to <10^{-8}, leaving qubit decoherence (T_{2}≈70 s), leakage, and measurement as the dominant error contributions. The ion is held above a microfabricated surface-electrode trap that incorporates a chip-integrated microwave resonator for electronic qubit control; the trap is operated at room temperature without magnetic shielding.
The trapped atomic ion qubits feature desirable properties for use in a quantum computer such as long coherence times, high qubit readout fidelity, and universal logic gates. While these essential properties have been demonstrated, the ability to scale a trapped ion quantum system has not yet been shown. The challenge of scaling the system calls for methods to realize high-fidelity logic gates in scalable trap structures. Surface electrode ion traps, that are microfabricated from a silicon substrate, provide a scalable platform for trapping ion qubits only if high-fidelity operations are achievable in these structures. Here, we present a system for trapping and manipulating ions in a scalable surface trap. Trapping times exceeding 20 minutes without laser cooling, and heating rates as low as 0.8 quanta/ms indicate stable trapping conditions in these microtraps. Coherence times of more than one second verify adequate qubit and control field stability. We demonstrate low-error single-qubit gates performed using stimulated Raman transitions driven by lasers that are tightly focused on the ion qubit. Digital feedback loops are implemented to control the driving field's amplitude and frequency. Gate errors are measured using a randomized benchmarking protocol for single qubit gates, where residual amplitude error in the control beam is compensated using various pulse sequence techniques. Using pulse compensation, we demonstrate single qubit gates with an average error per randomized Clifford group gate of 3.6(3)times10−43.6(3)\\times10^{-4}3.6(3)times10−4, which is below the fault-tolerant threshold for some error-correction schemes.
We demonstrate laser-driven two-qubit and single-qubit logic gates with respective fidelities 99.9(1)% and 99.9934(3)%, significantly above the ≈99% minimum threshold level required for fault-tolerant quantum computation, using qubits stored in hyperfine ground states of calcium-43 ions held in a room-temperature trap. We study the speed-fidelity trade-off for the two-qubit gate, for gate times between 3.8 μs and 520 μs, and develop a theoretical error model which is consistent with the data and which allows us to identify the principal technical sources of infidelity.
We demonstrate single-shot qubit readout with a fidelity sufficient for fault-tolerant quantum computation. For an optical qubit stored in 40Ca+ we achieve 99.991(1)% average readout fidelity in 10(6) trials, using time-resolved photon counting. An adaptive measurement technique allows 99.99% fidelity to be reached in 145 micros average detection time. For 43Ca+, we propose and implement an optical pumping scheme to transfer a long-lived hyperfine qubit to the optical qubit, capable of a theoretical fidelity of 99.95% in 10 micros. We achieve 99.87(4)% transfer fidelity and 99.77(3)% net readout fidelity.
A quantum computer could solve problems intractable on any conventional machine, but the physical resources necessary to build one depend strongly on the precision with which its constituent qubits can be manipulated. We demonstrate laser-driven two-qubit and single-qubit logic gates with fidelities 99.9(1)% and 99.9934(3)% respectively, using qubits stored in long-lived hyperfine states of calcium-43 ions held in a room-temperature device. Calcium-43 ions have exhibited the longest coherence time (T2∗≈50T_2^*\approx 50T2∗​≈50sec) and the highest state preparation and measurement fidelity of any single physical qubits. We study the speed/fidelity trade-off for the two-qubit gate, for gate times between 3.8μ\muμs and 520μ\muμs, and develop a theoretical model allowing us to identify the principal technical sources of error. We conclude that trapped-ion quantum logic is possible with the precision necessary for a practical quantum computer.