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arXiv:quant-ph/0208025 · Physical Review Letters

Quantum Computation with Vibrationally Excited Molecules

Carmen M. Tesch, Regina de Vivie‐Riedle

Published Sep 20, 2002• 309 citations
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Abstract

A new physical implementation for quantum computation is proposed. The vibrational modes of molecules are used to encode qubit systems. Global quantum logic gates are realized using shaped femtosecond laser pulses which are calculated applying optimal control theory. The scaling of the system is favorable; sources for decoherence can be eliminated. A complete set of one- and two-quantum gates is presented for a specific molecule. Detailed analysis regarding experimental realization shows that the structural resolution of today's pulse shapers is easily sufficient for pulse formation.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.89.157901

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•Jan 1, 2012•0 citations
A new physical implementation for quantum computation is proposed. The vibrational modes of molecules are used to encode qubit systems. Global quantum logic gates are realized using shaped femtosecond laser pulses which are calculated applying optimal control theory. The scaling of the system is favorable; sources for decoherence can be eliminated. A complete set of one- and two-quantum gates is presented for a specific molecule. Detailed analysis regarding experimental realization shows that the structural resolution of today's pulse shapers is easily sufficient for pulse formation.
Accurate rotation–vibration energy levels and transition dipoles of the molecule thiophosgene are used to model the execution of quantum gates with shaped laser pulses. Qubits are encoded in 2 n vibrational computing states on the ground electronic surface of the molecule. Computations are carried out by cycling amplitude between these computing states and a gateway state with a shaped laser pulse. The shaped pulse that performs the computation is represented by a physical model of a 128–1024 channel pulse shaper. Pulse shapes are optimized with a standard genetic algorithm, yielding experimentally realizable computing pulses. The robustness of optimization is studied as a function of the vibrational states selected, rotational level structure, additional vibrational levels not assigned to the computation, and compensation for laser power variation across a molecular ensemble.
The phase of quantum gates is one key issue for the implementation of quantum algorithms. In this paper we first investigate the phase evolution of global molecular quantum gates, which are realized by optimally shaped femtosecond laser pulses. The specific laser fields are calculated using the multitarget optimal control algorithm, our modification of the optimal control theory relevant for application in quantum computing. As qubit system we use vibrational modes of polyatomic molecules, here the two IR-active modes of acetylene. Exemplarily, we present our results for a Pi gate, which shows a strong dependence on the phase, leading to a significant decrease in quantum yield. To correct for this unwanted behavior we include pressure on the quantum phase in our multitarget approach. In addition the accuracy of these phase corrected global quantum gates is enhanced. Furthermore we could show that in our molecular approach phase corrected quantum gates and basis set independence are directly linked. Basis set independence is also another property highly required for the performance of quantum algorithms. By realizing the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm in our two qubit molecular model system, we demonstrate the good performance of our phase corrected and basis set independent quantum gates.
We have numerically examined optimization of the experimentally achievable shapes of mid-infrared femtosecond laser pulses to construct elementary quantum gates using molecular rovibrational states of a single molecule. Instead of optimizing the electric field by optimal control theory, the method generally used in theoretical studies of coherent control, the transmittance and the phase shift of conventional pulse shapers were optimized in the frequency domain by a genetic algorithm. The target molecular system we examined was the rotation-vibration states of CO in the $X({^{1}\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{+})$ ground electronic state. Although the existence of the rotational degrees of freedom makes the quantum gate operation complicated, high fidelity of over 0.95 was achieved for one-rovibrational-qubit systems, which indicates that a molecular quantum computer may be feasible for at least one-qubit calculations on a diatomic molecule. On the other hand, two-qubit calculations are more difficult to achieve in a single CO molecule using rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom as different qubits. The importance of the control of the rotational in addition to the vibrational wave packet in order to realize a molecular quantum computer is discussed.
We explore how the globality of quantum logic operations is ensured in the context of optimal control theory when qubits are encoded in vibrational eigenstates of different normal modes and specially shaped laser fields act as quantum logic operations. In a two-qubit model system, transition mechanisms for optimized laser fields generating single qubit flips, local NOT and global NOT and controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates are investigated and compared. We evaluate the participation of vibrational eigenstates beyond the qubit basis in the global gate mechanisms and how different features of CNOT and NOT gates relate to the characteristics of the vibrational manifold. When a non-qubit normal mode interacting via anharmonic resonances is introduced, neither the global gate mechanisms nor the optimized laser fields show a significant increase in complexity. Similar features of the global quantum gates in both model systems indicate a generality of the deduced principles. Finally, a primary concept for a realization of global quantum gates in an actual experiment referring to state-of-the-art techniques is presented. The possible reconstruction of optimized laser fields with sequences of simple Gaussian subpulses is demonstrated and some critical parameters are deduced.
The intent of this study is to determine the feasibility of diatomics as molecular quantum computing candidates and shed insight into the use of such experimental laser pulse shaping methods to represent quantum logic gates. Four appropriate rovibrational states of model diatomic molecules are encoded as the qubit states. A set of 2-qubit quantum logic gates (ACNOT, CNOT, NOT, Hadamard) are represented by amplitude and phase shaped laser pulses. The combinations of amplitudes and phases that produce the optimal laser pulse representation, for each quantum logic gate, are determined by a Genetic Algorithm optimization routine. The theoretical laser pulse shaping is analogous to current experimental frequency-domain pulse shaping apparatus with amplitude and phase control at individual frequencies. A model set of diatomics is sampled in order to determine a relationship between optimal laser pulse shaping and the choice of diatomic molecule. We show that the choice of diatomic molecule greatly influences the ability to produce optimal laser pulse shapes to represent quantum logic gates. Tuneable parameters specific to laser pulse shaping instruments are varied to determine their effect on optimal pulse production. They include varying the number of amplitude and phase components, adjusting the number of frequency components, and altering the frequency resolution which is synonymous with altering the laser pulse duration. A time domain analytic form of the original frequency domain laser pulse function is derived, providing a useful means to infer the laser pulse dependencies on these parameters. Initially, we show that the appropriate choice of rovibrational state qubits of carbon monoxide (12C16O) and the use of simple shaped binary pulses, 2 amplitude and 2 phase components, can provide significant control for specific quantum gates. Further amplitude variation at each frequency component is shown to be a crucial requirement for optimal laser pulse shaping, whereas phase variation provides minimal contribution. We show that the generation of optimal laser pulse shapes is highly dependent upon the frequency resolution and increasing the number of frequency components provides incremental improvements to optimal laser pulses.