Hardware-Efficient, Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computation with Rydberg Atoms

Abstract

Neutral-atom arrays have recently emerged as a promising platform for quantum information processing. One important remaining roadblock for the large-scale application of these systems is the ability to perform error-corrected quantum operations. To entangle the qubits in these systems, atoms are typically excited to Rydberg states, which could decay or give rise to various correlated errors that cannot be addressed directly through traditional methods of fault-tolerant quantum computation. In this work, we provide the first complete characterization of these sources of error in a neutral-atom quantum computer and propose hardware-efficient, fault-tolerant quantum computation schemes that mitigate them. Notably, we develop a novel and distinctly efficient method to address the most important errors associated with the decay of atomic qubits to states outside of the computational subspace. These advances allow us to significantly reduce the resource cost for fault-tolerant quantum computation compared to existing, general-purpose schemes. Our protocols can be implemented in the near term using state-of-the-art neutral-atom platforms with qubits encoded in both alkali and alkaline-earth atoms.9 MoreReceived 6 June 2021Revised 3 February 2022Accepted 12 April 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021049Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasOptical pumpingQuantum algorithmsQuantum computationQuantum gatesQuantum information processingQuantum protocolsSpontaneous emissionQuantum InformationAtomic, Molecular & Optical