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Physical Review Letters

Decoherence in Ion Trap Quantum Computers

Anupam Garg

Published Jul 29, 1996• 58 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The intrinsic decoherence from vibrational coupling of the ions in the Cirac-Zoller quantum computer [Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4091 (1995)] is considered. Starting from a state in which the vibrational modes are at a temperature $T$, and each ion is in a superposition of an excited and a ground state, an adiabatic approximation is used to find the inclusive probability $P(t)$ for the ions to evolve as they would without the vibrations, and for the vibrational modes to evolve into any final state. An analytic form is found for $P(t)$ at $T\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0$, and the decoherence time is found for all $T$. The decoherence is found to be quite small, even for 1000 ions.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.77.964

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•May 1, 1997•0 citations
The intrinsic decoherence from vibrational coupling of the ions in the Cirac-Zoller quantum computer [Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4091 (1995)] is considered. Starting from a state in which the vibrational modes are at a temperature TTT, and each ion is in a superposition of an excited and a ground state, an adiabatic approximation is used to find the inclusive probability P(t)P(t)P(t) for the ions to evolve as they would without the vibrations, and for the vibrational modes to evolve into any final state. An analytic form is found for P(t)P(t)P(t) at T=0T\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}0T=0, and the decoherence time is found for all TTT. The decoherence is found to be quite small, even for 1000 ions.
Decoherence is studied in an attractive proposal for an actual implementation of a quantum computer based on trapped ions.Emphasis is placed on the decoherence arising from the vibrational motion of the ions, which is compared with that due to spontaneous emission from excited states of the ions. The calculations is made tractable by exploiting the vast difference in time scales between the vibrational excitations and the intra-ionic electronic excitations. Since the latter are several orders of magnitude faster, an adiabatic approximation is used to integrate them out and find the inclusive probability for the electronic state of the ions to evolve as it would in the absence of vibrational coupling, and the ions to evolve into any state whatsoever. The decoherence time is found at zero temperature and for any number of ions N in the computer. Comparison is made with the spontaneous emission decoherence, and the implications for how trap voltages and other parameters should be scaled with N are discussed.
This thesis is concerned with various aspects of ion traps and their use as a quantum simulation and computation device. In its first part we investigate various sources of noise and decoherence in ion traps. As quantum information is very fragile, a detailed knowledge of noise and decoherence sources in a quantum computation device is essential. In the special case of an ion trap quantum computer we investigate the effects of intensity and phase noise in the laser, which is used to perform the gate operations. We then look at other sources of noise which are present without a laser being switched on. These are fluctuations in the trapping frequency caused by noise in the electric potentials applied to the trap and fluctuating electrical fields which will cause heating of the centre-of-mass vibrational state of the ions in the trap. For the case of fluctuating electrical fields we estimate the effect on a quantum gate operation. We then propose a scheme for performing quantum gates without having the ions cooled down to their motional ground state. The second part deals with various aspects of the use of ion traps as a device for quantum computation. We start with the use of ionic qubits as a measurement device for the centre-of-mass vibrational mode and investigate in detail the effect these measurements will have on the vibrational mode. If one wants to use quantum computation devices as systems to simulate quantum mechanics, it is of interest to know how to simulate say a k-level system with N qubits. We investigate the easiest case of this wider problem and look at how to simulate a three-level system (a so called trit) with two qubits in an ion trap quantum computer. We show how to get and measure a SU (3) geometric phase with this toy model. Finally we investigate how to simulate collective angular momentum models with a string of qubits in an ion trap. We assume that the ionic qubits are coupled to a thermal reservoir and derive a master equation for this case. We investigate the semiclassical limit of this master equation and, in the case for two qubits in the trap, determine the entanglement of the steady state. We also outline a way to find the steady state for the master equation using coherence vectors.
Anharmonicity of the quantized motional states of ions in a Paul trap can be utilized to address the state-to-state transitions selectively and control the motional modes of trapped ions coherently and adiabatically [Zhao and Babikov, Phys. Rev. A 77, 012338 (2008)]. In this paper we study two sources of the vibrational anharmonicity in the ion traps: the intrinsic Coulomb anharmonicity due to ion-ion interactions and the external anharmonicity of the trapping potential. An accurate numerical approach is used to compute energies and wave functions of vibrational eigenstates. The magnitude of the Coulomb anharmonicity is determined and shown to be insufficient for successful control. In contrast, anharmonicity of the trapping potential allows one to control the motion of ions very efficiently using the time-varying electric fields. Optimal control theory is used to derive the control pulses. One ion in a slightly anharmonic trap can be easily controlled. In the two- and three-ion systems the symmetric stretching mode is dark and cannot be controlled at all. The other two normal modes of the three-ion system can be controlled and used, for example, to encode a two-qubit system into the motional states of ions. A trap architecture that allows the necessary amount of vibrational anharmonicity to be achieved is proposed.
Using simple physical arguments we investigate the capabilities of a quantum computer based on cold trapped ions of the type recently proposed by Cirac and Zoller. From the limitations imposed on such a device by decoherence due to spontaneous decay, laser phase coherence times, ion heating and other possible sources of error, we derive bounds on the number of laser interactions and on the number of ions that may be used. As a quantitative measure of the possible performance of these devices, the largest number which may be factored using Shor`s quantum factoring algorithm is determined for a variety of species of ion.