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Preparing almost pure initial states for nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computing

Muhammad Sabieh Anwar, Damir Blažina, Hilary A. Carteret, Simon B. Duckett, T. K. Halstead, Jonathan A. Jones, C. Kozak, Richard J. K. Taylor

Published Dec 1, 2003• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

While quantum computing offers the potential of using new quantum algorithms to tackle problems that are intractable for classical processors, its implementation requires the development of quantum devices, which are as yet unavailable. The most complex implementations of quantum algorithms to date have used techniques adapted from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, but current liquid state NMR approaches cannot be extended to systems with many quantum bits, as it is not possible to prepare pure initial states by directly cooling the spin system into its ground state. Furthermore, it has been shown that current NMR experiments involve only separable states, and thus could in principle be described by local hidden variable models. Here we demonstrate how para-hydrogen can be used to prepare a two-spin system in an almost pure state and so overcome these two objections. To achieve polarisation comparable to our observed value of $\\epsilon = 0.916 \\pm 0.019$ by thermal means would require cooling to 6.4 mK in the 9.6 T field used, or a magnetic field of 0.45 MT at room temperature.

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•Jan 1, 2000•38 citations
While quantum computing offers the potential of using new quantum algorithms to tackle problems that are intractable for classical processors, its implementation requires the development of quantum devices, which are as yet unavailable. The most complex implementations of quantum algorithms to date have used techniques adapted from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, but current liquid state NMR approaches cannot be extended to systems with many quantum bits, as it is not possible to prepare pure initial states by directly cooling the spin system into its ground state. Furthermore, it has been shown that current NMR experiments involve only separable states, and thus could in principle be described by local hidden variable models. Here we demonstrate how para-hydrogen can be used to prepare a two-spin system in an almost pure state and so overcome these two objections. To achieve polarisation comparable to our observed value of epsilon=0.916pm0.019\\epsilon = 0.916 \\pm 0.019epsilon=0.916pm0.019 by thermal means would require cooling to 6.4 mK in the 9.6 T field used, or a magnetic field of 0.45 MT at room temperature.
Here we demonstrate how parahydrogen can be used to prepare a two-spin system in an almost pure state which is suitable for implementing nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computation. A 12 ns laser pulse is used to initiate a chemical reaction involving pure parahydrogen (the nuclear spin singlet of H2). The product, formed on the micros time scale, contains a hydrogen-derived two-spin system with an effective spin-state purity of 0.916. To achieve a comparable result by direct cooling would require an unmanageable (in the liquid state) temperature of 6.4 mK or an impractical magnetic field of 0.45 MT at room temperature. The resulting spin state has an entanglement of formation of 0.822 and cannot be described by local hidden variable models.
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is well-suited to implement quantum algorithms experimentally. However, there are serious problems associated with the noisy mixed initial state that is described by the thermal equilibrium density operator of NMR spectroscopy. Here we present a new strategy to dramatically increase the sensitivity of a NMR quantum computing experiment. Para hydrogen can be used to prepare a density operator in a suitable molecule that is very close to a pure state, an improvement on the order of 104 compared to “conventional” NMR quantum computing. Our strategy is demonstrated experimentally solving the Deutsch–Jozsa problem based on para hydrogen and Vaska’s complex.
This thesis addresses the problems of initialization and separability in liquid state NMR based quantum information processors. We prepare pure quantum states lying above the entanglement threshold. Our pure state quantum computer derives its purity from the highly polarized nuclear spin states in the para-hydrogen molecule. The thesis begins with a critique of conventional NMR based quantum information processing outlining the major strengths and weaknesses of the technology. We describe the enhanced magnetic ordering of the nuclear spin states in para-hydrogen and an initialization experiment exploiting this effect to achieve pure, entangled states. These states can indeed be used as initial states in implementing quantum algorithms: we describe mplementations of the Deutsch and the Grover quantum algorithms. The "twirl" operation converts a completely arbitrary input state to a Werner singlet. The NMR implementation of this operation is taken up. We also analyze the possibility of sharing the purity of some highly polarized qubits in a quantum computer onto quantum subspaces of arbitrary dimensions, and whether these sharing operations increase or decrease the likelihood of entanglement.
We describe a number of studies used to establish that parahydrogen can be used to prepare a two-spin system in a pure state, which is suitable for implementing NMR quantum computation. States are generated by pulsed and continuous-wave (CW) UV laser initiation of a chemical reaction between Ru(CO)(3)(L(2)) [where L(2) = dppe = 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane or L(2) = dpae = 1,2-bis(diphenylarsino)ethane] with pure parahydrogen (generated at 18 K). This process forms Ru(CO)(2)(dppe)(H)(2) and Ru(CO)(2)(dpae)(H)(2) on a sub-microsecond time-scale. With the pulsed laser, the spin state of the hydride nuclei in Ru(CO)(2)(dppe)(H)(2) has a purity of 89.8 +/- 2.6% (from 12 measurements). To achieve comparable results by cooling would require a temperature of 6.6 mK, which is unmanageable in the liquid state, or an impractical magnetic field of 0.44 MT at room temperature. In the case of CW initiation, reduced state purities are observed due to natural signal relaxation even when a spin-lock is used to prevent dephasing. When Ru(CO)(3)(dpae) and pulsed laser excitation are utilized, the corresponding dihydride product spin state purity was determined as 106 +/- 4% of the theoretical maximum. In other words, the state prepared using Ru(CO)(3)(dpae) as the precursor is indistinguishable from a pure state.
Current experiments in liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum computing are limited by low initial polarization. To address this problem, we have investigated the use of optical pumping techniques to enhance the polarization of a 2-qubit NMR quantum computer (C13 and H1 in CHCl313). We have generalized the procedure for effective pure state preparation in order to efficiently use the increased polarization. With this more flexible scheme, an effective pure state is prepared with polarization enhancement of a factor of 10 compared to the thermal state. An implementation of Grover’s quantum search algorithm with a polarization-enhanced spin system is demonstrated.
A new method of preparing the pseudo-pure state of a spin system for quantum computation in liquid nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was put forward and demonstrated experimentally. Applying appropriately connected line-selective pulses simultaneously and a field gradient pulse techniques we acquired straightforwardly all pseudo-pure states for two qubits in a single experiment much efficiently. The signal intensity with the pseudo-pure state prepared in this way is the same as that of temporal averaging. Our method is suitable for the system with arbitrary numbers of qubits. As an example of application, a highly structured search algorithm—-Hogg’s algorithm was also performed on the pseudo-pure state | 00 〉 prepared by our method.