Fast quantum gates and coherent control with trapped ions

Vera M. Schäfer, Christopher J. Ballance, K. Thirumalai +4 more

J. I. Cirac, P. Zoller, Juan F. Poyatos

Gerard T. Higgins, Fabian Pokorny, Chi Zhang +2 more

Trapped Rydberg ions are a promising novel approach to quantum computing and simulations. They are envisaged to combine the exquisite control of trapped ion qubits with the fast two-qubit Rydberg gates already demonstrated in neutral atom experiments. Coherent Rydberg excitation is a key requirement for these gates. Here, we carry out the first coherent Rydberg excitation of an ion and perform a single-qubit Rydberg gate, thus demonstrating basic elements of a trapped Rydberg ion quantum computer.

Juan José García‐Ripoll, P. Zoller, J. I. Cirac

In this paper we develop a unified framework to study the coherent control of trapped ions subject to state-dependent forces. Taking different limits in our theory, we can reproduce previous designs of quantum gates and propose a different design of fast gates based on continuous laser beams. We demonstrate how to simulate Ising Hamiltonians in a many ions setup, and how to create highly entangled states and induce squeezing. Finally, in a detailed analysis we identify the physical limits of this technique and study the dependence of errors on the temperature.

Juan José García‐Ripoll, P. Zoller, Ignacio Cirac

Trapped ions are one of the most promising systems to implement quantum computations. In fact, there seems to be no fundamental obstacle to scale-up existing set-ups [1,2]. This is achieved by moving the ions without affecting their internal state, something that has been successfully demonstrated. The current limitations of trapped ions lie in the performance of the two--qubit quantum gates which are required for universal quantum computations. In particular, the time required to perform a gate is limited by the frequency of the trap holding the ions, something which cannot be increased arbitrarily. In this work [3] we show that such a time limitation is by no means fundamental. In fact, we propose a new concept of quantum gate which is not limited by the trap frequency, is completely independent of the temperature (even beyond the Lamb-Dicke limit), and requires no addressability. We also analyze the performance of quantum gates based on this new scheme.

Vera M. Schäfer