Average Gate Fidelity Research Articles

Quantification and characterization of leakage errors

We present a general framework for the quantification and characterization of leakage errors that result when a quantum system is encoded in the subspace of a larger system. To do this we introduce new metrics for quantifying the coherent and incoherent properties of the resulting errors, and we illustrate this framework with several examples relevant to superconducting qubits. In particular, we propose two quantities: the leakage and seepage rates, which together with average gate fidelity allow for characterizing the average performance of quantum gates in the presence of leakage and show how the randomized benchmarking protocol can be modified to enable the robust estimation of all three quantities for a Clifford gate set.

Gate-error analysis in simulations of quantum computers with transmon qubits

In the model of gate-based quantum computation, the qubits are controlled by a sequence of quantum gates. In superconducting qubit systems, these gates can be implemented by voltage pulses. The success of implementing a particular gate can be expressed by various metrics such as the average gate fidelity, the diamond distance, and the unitarity. We analyze these metrics of gate pulses for a system of two superconducting transmon qubits coupled by a resonator, a system inspired by the architecture of the IBM Quantum Experience. The metrics are obtained by numerical solution of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation of the transmon system. We find that the metrics reflect systematic errors that are most pronounced for echoed cross-resonance gates, but that none of the studied metrics can reliably predict the performance of a gate when used repeatedly in a quantum algorithm.

Quantum-Dot-Based Telecommunication-Wavelength Quantum Relay

The development of quantum relays for long haul and attack-proof quantum communication networks operating with weak coherent laser pulses requires entangled photon sources at telecommunication wavelengths with intrinsic single-photon emission for most practical implementations. Using a semiconductor quantum dot emitting entangled photon pairs in the telecom O-band, we demonstrate for the first time a quantum relay fulfilling both of these conditions. The system achieves a maximum fidelity of 94.5 % for implementation of a standard 4-state protocol with input states generated by a laser. We further investigate robustness against frequency detuning of the narrow-band input and perform process tomography of the teleporter, revealing operation for arbitrary pure input states, with an average gate fidelity of 83.6 %. The results highlight the potential of semiconductor light sources for compact and robust quantum relay technology, compatible with existing communication infrastructures.

Hybrid benchmarking of arbitrary quantum gates

We present a protocol for Interleaved Randomized Benchmarking of arbitrary quantum gates using Monte Carlo sampling of quantum states. It is generally applicable, including non-Clifford gates while preserving key advantages of Randomized Benchmarking such as error amplification as well as independence from state preparation and measurement errors. This property is crucial for implementations in many contemporary systems. Although the protocol scales exponentially in the number of qubits, it is superior to direct Monte Carlo sampling of the average gate fidelity in both the total number of experiments by orders of magnitude and savings in classical preprocessing, that are exponential.

Gate fidelity and coherence of an electron spin in an Si/SiGe quantum dot with micromagnet

The gate fidelity and the coherence time of a quantum bit (qubit) are important benchmarks for quantum computation. We construct a qubit using a single electron spin in an Si/SiGe quantum dot and control it electrically via an artificial spin-orbit field from a micromagnet. We measure an average single-qubit gate fidelity of ∼99% using randomized benchmarking, which is consistent with dephasing from the slowly evolving nuclear spins in the substrate. The coherence time measured using dynamical decoupling extends up to ∼400 μs for 128 decoupling pulses, with no sign of saturation. We find evidence that the coherence time is limited by noise in the 10-kHz to 1-MHz range, possibly because charge noise affects the spin via the micromagnet gradient. This work shows that an electron spin in an Si/SiGe quantum dot is a good candidate for quantum information processing as well as for a quantum memory, even without isotopic purification.

Optimization of a solid-state electron spin qubit using gate set tomography

State of the art qubit systems are reaching the gate fidelities required for scalable quantum computation architectures. Further improvements in the fidelity of quantum gates demands characterization and benchmarking protocols that are efficient, reliable and extremely accurate. Ideally, a benchmarking protocol should also provide information on how to rectify residual errors. Gate set tomography (GST) is one such protocol designed to give detailed characterization of as-built qubits. We implemented GST on a high-fidelity electron-spin qubit confined by a single 31P atom in 28Si. The results reveal systematic errors that a randomized benchmarking analysis could measure but not identify, whereas GST indicated the need for improved calibration of the length of the control pulses. After introducing this modification, we measured a new benchmark average gate fidelity of , an improvement on the previous value of . Furthermore, GST revealed high levels of non-Markovian noise in the system, which will need to be understood and addressed when the qubit is used within a fault-tolerant quantum computation scheme.

Passive CPHASE Gate via Cross-Kerr Nonlinearities.

A fundamental and open question is whether cross-Kerr nonlinearities can be used to construct a controlled-phase (cphase) gate. Here we propose a gate constructed from a discrete set of atom-mediated cross-Kerr interaction sites with counterpropagating photons. We show that the average gate fidelity F between a cphase and our proposed gate increases as the number of interaction sites increases and the spectral width of the photon decreases; e.g., with 12 sites we find F>99%.

A photon-photon quantum gate based on a single atom in an optical resonator.

That two photons pass each other undisturbed in free space is ideal for the faithful transmission of information, but prohibits an interaction between the photons. Such an interaction is, however, required for a plethora of applications in optical quantum information processing. The long-standing challenge here is to realize a deterministic photon-photon gate, that is, a mutually controlled logic operation on the quantum states of the photons. This requires an interaction so strong that each of the two photons can shift the other's phase by π radians. For polarization qubits, this amounts to the conditional flipping of one photon's polarization to an orthogonal state. So far, only probabilistic gates based on linear optics and photon detectors have been realized, because "no known or foreseen material has an optical nonlinearity strong enough to implement this conditional phase shift''. Meanwhile, tremendous progress in the development of quantum-nonlinear systems has opened up new possibilities for single-photon experiments. Platforms range from Rydberg blockade in atomic ensembles to single-atom cavity quantum electrodynamics. Applications such as single-photon switches and transistors, two-photon gateways, nondestructive photon detectors, photon routers and nonlinear phase shifters have been demonstrated, but none of them with the ideal information carriers: optical qubits in discriminable modes. Here we use the strong light-matter coupling provided by a single atom in a high-finesse optical resonator to realize the Duan-Kimble protocol of a universal controlled phase flip (π phase shift) photon-photon quantum gate. We achieve an average gate fidelity of (76.2 ± 3.6) per cent and specifically demonstrate the capability of conditional polarization flipping as well as entanglement generation between independent input photons. This photon-photon quantum gate is a universal quantum logic element, and therefore could perform most existing two-photon operations. The demonstrated feasibility of deterministic protocols for the optical processing of quantum information could lead to new applications in which photons are essential, especially long-distance quantum communication and scalable quantum computing.

Scalable randomised benchmarking of non-Clifford gates

Randomised benchmarking is a widely used experimental technique to characterise the average error of quantum operations. Benchmarking procedures that scale to enable the characterisation of n-qubit circuits rely on efficient procedures for manipulating those circuits and, as such, have been limited to subgroups of the Clifford group. However, universal quantum computers require additional, non-Clifford gates to approximate arbitrary unitary transformations. We define a scalable randomised benchmarking procedure over n-qubit unitary matrices that correspond to protected non-Clifford gates for a class of stabiliser codes. We present efficient methods for representing and composing group elements, sampling them uniformly and synthesising corresponding poly(n)-sized circuits. The procedure provides experimental access to two independent parameters that together characterise the average gate fidelity of a group element. A scalable procedure to determine the error of quantum operations has been developed by researchers in the United States. Andrew Cross and colleagues at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center have expanded previously used protocols to a broader range of quantum circuits, thereby enabling error benchmarking for all common logical operations used in leading quantum computing protocols. The standard technique for error characterization in these devices is randomized benchmarking, which provides benefits such as insensitivity to measurement errors, but on the other hand only functions in a limited number of circumstances. In their theoretical study, the researchers demonstrate how randomized benchmarking approaches can be expanded to a much broader range of logical operations. The procedure can be readily implemented experimentally, and provides access to important experimental noise parameters in quantum computing.

Universal control of ion qubits in a scalable microfabricated planar trap

We demonstrate universal quantum control over chains of ions in a surface-electrode ion trap, including all the fundamental operations necessary to perform algorithms in a one-dimensional, nearest-neighbor quantum computing architecture. We realize both single-qubit operations and nearest-neighbor entangling gates with Raman laser beams, and we interleave the two gate types. We report average single-qubit gate fidelities as high as 0.970(1) for two-, three-, and four-ion chains, characterized with randomized benchmarking. We generate Bell states between the nearest-neighbor pairs of a three-ion chain, with fidelity up to 0.84(2). We combine one- and two-qubit gates to perform quantum process tomography of a cnot gate in a two-ion chain, and we report an overall fidelity of 0.76(3).

Bounding quantum gate error rate based on reported average fidelity

Remarkable experimental advances in quantum computing are exemplified by recent announcements of impressive average gate fidelities exceeding 99.9% for single-qubit gates and 99% for two-qubit gates. Although these high numbers engender optimism that fault-tolerant quantum computing is within reach, the connection of average gate fidelity with fault-tolerance requirements is not direct. Here we use reported average gate fidelity to determine an upper bound on the quantum-gate error rate, which is the appropriate metric for assessing progress towards fault-tolerant quantum computation, and we demonstrate that this bound is asymptotically tight for general noise. Although this bound is unlikely to be saturated by experimental noise, we demonstrate using explicit examples that the bound indicates a realistic deviation between the true error rate and the reported average fidelity. We introduce the Pauli distance as a measure of this deviation, and we show that knowledge of the Pauli distance enables tighter estimates of the error rate of quantum gates.

Experimental fault-tolerant universal quantum gates with solid-state spins under ambient conditions.

Quantum computation provides great speedup over its classical counterpart for certain problems. One of the key challenges for quantum computation is to realize precise control of the quantum system in the presence of noise. Control of the spin-qubits in solids with the accuracy required by fault-tolerant quantum computation under ambient conditions remains elusive. Here, we quantitatively characterize the source of noise during quantum gate operation and demonstrate strategies to suppress the effect of these. A universal set of logic gates in a nitrogen-vacancy centre in diamond are reported with an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 0.999952 and two-qubit gate fidelity of 0.992. These high control fidelities have been achieved at room temperature in naturally abundant 13C diamond via composite pulses and an optimized control method.

Tensor networks and graphical calculus for open quantum systems

We describe a graphical calculus for completely positive maps and in doing so review the theory of open quantum systems and other fundamental primitives of quantum information theory using the language of tensor networks. In particular we demonstrate the construction of tensor networks to pictographically represent the Liouville-superoperator, Choi-matrix, process-matrix, Kraus, and system-environment representations for the evolution of quantum states, review how these representations interrelate, and illustrate how graphical manipulations of the tensor networks may be used to concisely transform between them. To further demonstrate the utility of the presented graphical calculus we include several examples where we provide arguably simpler graphical proofs of several useful quantities in quantum information theory including the composition and contraction of multipartite channels, a condition for whether an arbitrary bipartite state may be used for ancilla assisted process tomography, and the derivation of expressions for the average gate fidelity and entanglement fidelity of a channel in terms of each of the different representations of the channel.

Tensor networks and graphical calculus for open quantum systems

We describe a graphical calculus for completely positive maps and in doing so review the theory of open quantum systems and other fundamental primitives of quantum information theory using the language of tensor networks. In particular we demonstrate the construction of tensor networks to pictographically represent the Liouville-superoperator, Choi-matrix, process-matrix, Kraus, and system-environment representations for the evolution of quantum states, review how these representations interrelate, and illustrate how graphical manipulations of the tensor networks may be used to concisely transform between them. To further demonstrate the utility of the presented graphical calculus we include several examples where we provide arguably simpler graphical proofs of several useful quantities in quantum information theory including the composition and contraction of multipartite channels, a condition for whether an arbitrary bipartite state may be used for ancilla assisted process tomography, and the derivation of expressions for the average gate fidelity and entanglement fidelity of a channel in terms of each of the different representations of the channel.

Quantifying the quantum gate fidelity of single-atom spin qubits in silicon by randomized benchmarking

Building upon the demonstration of coherent control and single-shot readout of the electron and nuclear spins of individual 31P atoms in silicon, we present here a systematic experimental estimate of quantum gate fidelities using randomized benchmarking of 1-qubit gates in the Clifford group. We apply this analysis to the electron and the ionized 31P nucleus of a single P donor in isotopically purified 28Si. We find average gate fidelities of 99.95% for the electron and 99.99% for the nuclear spin. These values are above certain error correction thresholds and demonstrate the potential of donor-based quantum computing in silicon. By studying the influence of the shape and power of the control pulses, we find evidence that the present limitation to the gate fidelity is mostly related to the external hardware and not the intrinsic behaviour of the qubit.

High-Fidelity Preparation, Gates, Memory, and Readout of a Trapped-Ion Quantum Bit.

We implement all single-qubit operations with fidelities significantly above the minimum threshold required for fault-tolerant quantum computing, using a trapped-ion qubit stored in hyperfine "atomic clock" states of ^{43}Ca^{+}. We measure a combined qubit state preparation and single-shot readout fidelity of 99.93%, a memory coherence time of T_{2}^{*}=50 sec, and an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9999%. These results are achieved in a room-temperature microfabricated surface trap, without the use of magnetic field shielding or dynamic decoupling techniques to overcome technical noise.

Superconducting quantum circuits at the surface code threshold for fault tolerance.

A quantum computer can solve hard problems, such as prime factoring, database searching and quantum simulation, at the cost of needing to protect fragile quantum states from error. Quantum error correction provides this protection by distributing a logical state among many physical quantum bits (qubits) by means of quantum entanglement. Superconductivity is a useful phenomenon in this regard, because it allows the construction of large quantum circuits and is compatible with microfabrication. For superconducting qubits, the surface code approach to quantum computing is a natural choice for error correction, because it uses only nearest-neighbour coupling and rapidly cycled entangling gates. The gate fidelity requirements are modest: the per-step fidelity threshold is only about 99 per cent. Here we demonstrate a universal set of logic gates in a superconducting multi-qubit processor, achieving an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.92 per cent and a two-qubit gate fidelity of up to 99.4 per cent. This places Josephson quantum computing at the fault-tolerance threshold for surface code error correction. Our quantum processor is a first step towards the surface code, using five qubits arranged in a linear array with nearest-neighbour coupling. As a further demonstration, we construct a five-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state using the complete circuit and full set of gates. The results demonstrate that Josephson quantum computing is a high-fidelity technology, with a clear path to scaling up to large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum circuits.

Robust site-resolvable quantum gates in an optical lattice via inhomogeneous control

The power of optical lattices for quantum simulation and computation is greatly enhanced when atoms at individual lattice sites can be accessed for measurement and control. Experiments routinely use high-resolution microscopy to obtain site-resolved images in real time, and site-resolved spin flips have been implemented using microwaves resonant with frequency-shifted target atoms in focused light fields. Here we show that methods adapted from inhomogeneous control can greatly increase the performance of such resonance addressing, allowing the targeting of arbitrary single-qubit quantum gates on selected sites with minimal cross-talk to neighbouring sites and significant robustness against uncertainty in the atom position. We further demonstrate the simultaneous implementation of different gates at adjacent sites with a single global microwave pulse. Coherence is verified through two-pulse experiments, and the average gate fidelity is measured to be 95±3%. Our approach may be useful in other contexts such as ion traps and nitrogen-vacancy centres in diamond.

Improving quantum gate fidelities by using a qubit to measure microwave pulse distortions.

We present a new method for determining pulse imperfections and improving the single-gate fidelity in a superconducting qubit. By applying consecutive positive and negative π pulses, we amplify the qubit evolution due to microwave pulse distortions, which causes the qubit state to rotate around an axis perpendicular to the intended rotation axis. Measuring these rotations as a function of pulse period allows us to reconstruct the shape of the microwave pulse arriving at the sample. Using the extracted response to predistort the input signal, we are able to reduce the average error per gate by 37%, which enables us to reach an average single-qubit gate fidelity higher than 0.998.

Characterization of Addressability by Simultaneous Randomized Benchmarking

The control and handling of errors arising from cross talk and unwanted interactions in multiqubit systems is an important issue in quantum information processing architectures. We introduce a benchmarking protocol that provides information about the amount of addressability present in the system and implement it on coupled superconducting qubits. The protocol consists of randomized benchmarking experiments run both individually and simultaneously on pairs of qubits. A relevant figure of merit for the addressability is then related to the differences in the measured average gate fidelities in the two experiments. We present results from two similar samples with differing cross talk and unwanted qubit-qubit interactions. The results agree with predictions based on simple models of the classical cross talk and Stark shifts.