Robust Quantum Computation Research Articles

Fast super robust nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation

Nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation (NGQC) provides a method for implementing fast and robust quantum gates. To enhance the robustness of NGQC against control errors, many solutions have been proposed by previous researchers. However, these solutions often lead to longer operation times for quantum gates. To simultaneously enhance quantum gate robustness against control errors and reduce operation times to mitigate decoherence effects, we introduce fast super robust NGQC (FSR-NGQC). This approach achieves faster speeds when operating small-angle rotation gates. Through numerical calculations, we have demonstrated the performance of our scheme in a decoherence environment. The results show that our scheme achieves higher fidelity, thus enabling fast and robust geometric quantum computing.

Fault-Tolerant Operation of Bosonic Qubits with Discrete-Variable Ancillae

Fault-tolerant quantum computation with bosonic qubits often necessitates the use of noisy discrete-variable ancillae. In this work, we establish a comprehensive and practical fault-tolerance framework for such a hybrid system and synthesize it with fault-tolerant protocols by combining bosonic quantum error correction (QEC) and advanced quantum control techniques. We introduce essential building blocks of error-corrected gadgets by leveraging ancilla-assisted bosonic operations using a generalized variant of path-independent quantum control. Using these building blocks, we construct a universal set of error-corrected gadgets that tolerate a single-photon loss and an arbitrary ancilla fault for four-legged cat qubits. Notably, our construction requires only dispersive coupling between bosonic modes and ancillae, as well as beam-splitter coupling between bosonic modes, both of which have been experimentally demonstrated with strong strengths and high accuracy. Moreover, each error-corrected bosonic qubit is comprised of only a single bosonic mode and a three-level ancilla, featuring the hardware efficiency of bosonic QEC in the full fault-tolerant setting. We numerically demonstrate the feasibility of our schemes using current experimental parameters in the circuit-QED platform. Finally, we present a hardware-efficient architecture for fault-tolerant quantum computing by concatenating the four-legged cat qubits with an outer qubit code utilizing only beam-splitter couplings. Our estimates suggest that the overall noise threshold can be reached using existing hardware. These developed fault-tolerant schemes extend beyond their applicability to four-legged cat qubits and can be adapted for other rotation-symmetrical codes, offering a promising avenue toward scalable and robust quantum computation with bosonic qubits. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Raman Sideband Cooling of Molecules in an Optical Tweezer Array to the 3D Motional Ground State

Ultracold polar molecules are promising for quantum information processing and searches for physics beyond the standard model. Laser cooling to ultracold temperatures is an established technique for trapped diatomic and triatomic molecules. Further cooling of the molecules to near the motional ground state is crucial for reducing various dephasings in quantum and precision applications. In this work, we demonstrate Raman sideband cooling (RSC) of CaF molecules in optical tweezers to near their motional ground state, with average motional occupation quantum numbers of n¯x=0.16(12), n¯y=0.17(17) (radial directions), and n¯z=0.22(16) (axial direction), and a 3-D motional-ground-state probability of 54±18% of the molecules that survive the RSC. This process paves the way to increase molecular coherence times in optical tweezers for robust quantum computation and simulation applications. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Effective implementation of nonadiabatic geometric quantum gates of cat-state qubits using an auxiliary qutrit

We propose an effective protocol for the implementation of nonadiabatic geometric quantum gates of cat-state qubits in Kerr-nonlinear resonators driven by two-photon squeezing drives. Coupling the Kerr-nonlinear resonators with an auxiliary qutrit with proper coupling strengths, the selective transition of the auxiliary qutrit is realized. The selective transition can be exploited in the implementation of a set of useful quantum gates, including the phase gates, the NOT gates, the controlled-phase gates, the controlled NOT gates, and the Toffoli gates. Numerical simulations show the implementations of different types of gates are robust against systematic errors, random noise, and decoherence. Therefore, the protocol may be helpful for robust and scalable quantum computation based on cat-state qubits.

Revealing the Origin of Time-Reversal Symmetry Breaking in Fe-Chalcogenide Superconductor FeTe_{1-x}Se_{x}.

Recently, evidence has emerged in the topological superconductor Fe-chalcogenide FeTe_{1-x}Se_{x} for time-reversal symmetry breaking (TRSB), the nature of which has strong implications on the Majorana zero modes (MZM) discovered in this system. It remains unclear, however, whether the TRSB resides in the topological surface state (TSS) or in the bulk, and whether it is due to an unconventional TRSB superconducting order parameter or an intertwined order. Here, by performing in superconducting FeTe_{1-x}Se_{x} crystals both surface-magneto-optic-Kerr effect measurements using a Sagnac interferometer and bulk magnetic susceptibility measurements, we pinpoint the TRSB to the TSS, where we also detect a Dirac gap. Further, we observe surface TRSB in nonsuperconducting FeTe_{1-x}Se_{x} of nominally identical composition, indicating that TRSB arises from an intertwined surface ferromagnetic (FM) order. The observed surface FM bears striking similarities to the two-dimensional (2D) FM found in 2D van der Waals crystals, and is highly sensitive to the exact chemical composition, thereby providing a means for optimizing the conditions for Majorana particles that are useful for robust quantum computing.

Second Chern crystals with inherently non-trivial topology.

Chern insulators have been generalized to many classical wave systems and thereby lead to many potential applications such as robust waveguides, quantum computation and high-performance lasers. However, the band structure of a material can be either topologically trivial or non-trivial, depending on how the crystal structure is designed. Here, we propose a second Chern crystal in a four-dimensional parameter space by introducing two extra synthetic translation dimensions. Since the topology of the bulk bands in the synthetic translation space is intrinsically non-trivial, our proposed four-dimensional crystal is guaranteed to be topologically non-trivial regardless of the crystal's detailed configuration. We derive the topologically protected modes on the lower dimensional boundaries of such a crystal via dimension reduction. Remarkably, we observe the one-dimensional gapless dislocation modes and confirm their robustness in experiments. Our findings provide novel perspectives on topologically non-trivial crystals and may inspire designs of classical wave devices.

Nonadiabatic Holonomic Quantum Computation via Path Optimization

Nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation (NHQC) is implemented by fast evolution processes in a geometric way to withstand local noises. However, recent works of implementing NHQC are sensitive to the systematic noise and error. Here, we present a path-optimized NHQC (PONHQC) scheme based on the non-Abelian geometric phase, and find that a geometric gate can be constructed by different evolution paths, which have different responses to systematic noises. Due to the flexibility of the PONHQC scheme, we can choose an optimized path that can lead to excellent gate performance. Numerical simulation shows that our optimized scheme can greatly outperform the conventional NHQC scheme, in terms of both fidelity and robustness of the gates. In addition, we propose to implement our strategy on superconducting quantum circuits with decoherence-free subspace encoding with the experiment-friendly two-body exchange interaction. Therefore, we present a flexible NHQC scheme that is promising for the future robust quantum computation.

Error-Tolerant Geometric Quantum Control for Logical Qubits with Minimal Resources

Geometric quantum computation offers a practical strategy toward robust quantum computation due to its inherently error tolerance. However, the rigorous geometric conditions lead to complex and/or error-disturbed quantum controls, especially for logical qubits that involve more physical qubits, whose error tolerance is effective in principle though, their experimental demonstration is still demanding. Thus, how to best simplify the needed control and manifest its full advantage has become the key to widespread applications of geometric quantum computation. Here we propose a new fast and robust geometric scheme, with the decoherence-free-subspace encoding, and present its physical implementation on superconducting quantum circuits, where we only utilize the experimentally demonstrated parametrically tunable coupling to achieve high-fidelity geometric control over logical qubits. Numerical simulation verifies that it can efficiently combine the error tolerance from both the geometric phase and logical-qubit encoding, displaying our gate-performance superiority over the conventional dynamical one without encoding, in terms of both gate fidelity and robustness. Therefore, our scheme can consolidate both error suppression methods for logical-qubit control, which sheds light on the future large-scale quantum computation.

Conditions for Equivalent Noise Sensitivity of Geometric and Dynamical Quantum Gates

Geometric quantum gates are often expected to be more resilient than dynamical gates against certain types of error, which would make them ideal for robust quantum computing. However, this is still up for debate due to seemingly conflicting results in the literature. Here we use dynamical invariant theory in conjunction with filter functions in order to analytically characterize the noise sensitivity of an arbitrary quantum gate. For any control Hamiltonian that produces a geometric gate, we find that under certain common conditions one can construct another control Hamiltonian that produces an equivalent dynamical gate with identical noise sensitivity (as characterized by the filter function). Our result holds for a Hilbert space of arbitrary dimensions, but we illustrate our result by examining experimentally relevant single-qubit scenarios and providing explicit examples of equivalent geometric and dynamical gates.

A Primer on Path Integrals, Aharonov–Bohm Effect and the Geometric Phase

This work reports an effort to introduce a few advanced concepts in quantum physics to undergraduate students who have only a minimal familiarity with wave mechanics. The geometric phase is not introduced in most introductory courses on quantum mechanics. It is of pivotal significance for the understanding of topological phase transitions which are becoming increasingly important in a large number of physical phenomena, including those that involve platforms for robust quantum computing. This article would provide a gentle introduction to the geometric phase. Toward this goal, Feynman’s path integral approach to quantum mechanics and its application in the interpretation of the wondrous Aharonov–Bohm effect is introduced in a gentle manner. A computer simulation of this interesting phenomenology is presented to help gain an early insight into some advanced concepts.

The Optimization and Application of 3-Bit Hermitian Gates and Multiple Control Toffoli Gates

The well-known 3-bit Hermitian gate (a Toffoli gate) has been implemented using Clifford + T circuits. Compared with the Peres gate, its implementation circuit requires more controlled-NOT (CNOT) gates. However, the Peres gate is not Hermitian. This paper reports four 3-bit Hermitian gates named LI gates. Whose realized circuits have the same T-count, T-depth, and CNOT-count as the Peres gate. Furthermore, two decomposition methods of a multiple control Toffoli (MCT) gate are proposed for different primary optimization goals. Then, we design the equality, less-than, and full comparators with the minimum circuit width using proposed Hermitian gates and optimized MCT gates. A fault-tolerant circuit is required for robust quantum computing. Clifford+T circuits are accepted solutions for fault-tolerant implementation. Considering T-count, T-depth, CNOT-count, and circuit width as the primary optimization goals, we design the optimized Clifford + T circuits of three comparators using LI gates and optimized MCT gates. Comparison and analysis show that the proposed comparators have better overall performances for T-count, T-depth, CNOT-count, and circuit width than the best-known comparators without quantum measurements.

Experimental realization of nonadiabatic holonomic single‐qubit quantum gates with two dark paths in a trapped ion

For circuit-based quantum computation, experimental implementation of a universal set of quantum logic gates with high-fidelity and strong robustness is essential and central. Quantum gates induced by geometric phases, which depend only on global properties of the evolution paths, have built-in noise-resilience features. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate nonadiabatic holonomic single-qubit quantum gates on two dark paths in a trapped 171Yb+ ion based on four-level systems with resonant drives. We confirm the implementation with measured gate fidelity through both quantum process tomography and randomized benchmarking methods. Meanwhile, we find that nontrivial holonomic two-qubit quantum gates can also be realized within current experimental technologies. Compared with previous implementations, our experiments share both the advantages of fast nonadiabatic evolution and robustness against systematic errors. Therefore, our experiments confirm a promising method for fast and robust holonomic quantum computation.

Pulse engineering of a global field for robust and universal quantum computation

Global control strategies for arrays of qubits are a promising pathway to scalable quantum computing. A continuous-wave global field provides decoupling of the qubits from background noise. However, this approach is limited by variability in the parameters of individual qubits in the array. Here we show that by modulating a global field simultaneously applied to the entire array, we are able to encode qubits that are less sensitive to the statistical scatter in qubit resonance frequency and microwave amplitude fluctuations, which are problems expected in a large scale system. We name this approach the SMART (Sinusoidally Modulated, Always Rotating and Tailored) qubit protocol. We show that there exist optimal modulation conditions for qubits in a global field that robustly provide improved coherence times. We discuss in further detail the example of spins in silicon quantum dots, in which universal one- and two-qubit control is achieved electrically by controlling the spin-orbit coupling of individual qubits and the exchange coupling between spins in neighbouring dots. This work provides a high-fidelity qubit operation scheme in a global field, significantly improving the prospects for scalability of spin-based quantum computer architectures.

Probing topological spin liquids on a programmable quantum simulator.

Quantum spin liquids, exotic phases of matter with topological order, have been a major focus in physics for the past several decades. Such phases feature long-range quantum entanglement that can potentially be exploited to realize robust quantum computation. We used a 219-atom programmable quantum simulator to probe quantum spin liquid states. In our approach, arrays of atoms were placed on the links of a kagome lattice, and evolution under Rydberg blockade created frustrated quantum states with no local order. The onset of a quantum spin liquid phase of the paradigmatic toric code type was detected by using topological string operators that provide direct signatures of topological order and quantum correlations. Our observations enable the controlled experimental exploration of topological matter and protected quantum information processing.

Practical Guide for Building Superconducting Quantum Devices

Quantum computing offers a powerful new paradigm of information processing that has the potential to transform a wide range of industries. In the pursuit of the tantalizing promises of a universal quantum computer, a multitude of new knowledge and expertise has been developed, enabling the construction of novel quantum algorithms as well as increasingly robust quantum hardware. In particular, we have witnessed rapid progress in the circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) technology, which has emerged as one of the most promising physical systems that is capable of addressing the key challenges in realizing full-stack quantum computing on a large scale. In this Tutorial, we present some of the most crucial building blocks developed by the cQED community in recent years and a précis of the latest achievements towards robust universal quantum computation. More importantly, we aim to provide a synoptic outline of the core techniques that underlie most cQED experiments and offer a practical guide for a novice experimentalist to design, construct, and characterize their first quantum device.11 MoreReceived 9 October 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.040202Published 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 AreasQuantum computationQuantum information with solid state qubitsQuantum Information

Super-robust nonadiabatic geometric quantum control

Nonadiabatic geometric quantum computation (NGQC) and nonadiabatic holonomic quantum computation (NHQC) have been proposed to reduce the run time of geometric quantum gates. However, in terms of robustness against experimental control errors, the existing NGQC and NHQC scenarios have no advantage over standard dynamical gates in most cases. Here, we give the reasons why nonadiabatic geometric gates are sensitive to the control errors and, further, we propose a scheme of super-robust nonadiabatic geometric quantum control, in which the super-robust condition can guarantee both high speed and robustness of the geometric gate. To illustrate the working mechanism of super-robust geometric quantum gates, we give two simple examples of SR-NGQC and SR-NHQC for two- and three-level quantum systems, respectively. Theoretical and numerical results with the experimental parameters indicate that our scheme can significantly improve the gate performance compared to the previous NGQC, NHQC, and standard dynamical schemes. Super-robust geometric quantum computation can be applied to various physical platforms such as superconducting qubits, quantum dots, and trapped ions. All of these sufficiently show that our scheme provides a promising way towards robust geometric quantum computation.

1D topological systems for next-generation electronics

1D topological systems for next-generation electronics

Error-resilient Floquet geometric quantum computation

We proposed a new geometric quantum computation (GQC) scheme, called Floquet GQC (FGQC), where error-resilient geometric gates based on periodically driven two-level systems can be constructed via a new non-Abelian geometric phase proposed in a recent study [V. Novi\^{c}enko \textit{et al}, Phys. Rev. A 100, 012127 (2019) ]. Based on Rydberg atoms, we gave possible implementations of universal single-qubit gates and a nontrivial two-qubit gate for FGQC. By using numerical simulation, we evaluated the performance of the FGQC Z and X gates in the presence of both decoherence and a certain kind of systematic control error. The gate fidelities of the Z and X gates are $F_{X,\text{gate}}\approx F_{Z,\text{gate}}\approx 0.9992$. The numerical results provide evidence that FGQC gates can achieve fairly high gate fidelities even in the presence of noise and control imperfection. In addition, we found FGQC is robust against global control error, both analytical demonstration and numerical evidence were given. Consequently, this study makes an important step towards robust geometric quantum computation.

Crosstalk Suppression for Fault-tolerant Quantum Error Correction with Trapped Ions

Physical qubits in experimental quantum information processors are inevitably exposed to different sources of noise and imperfections, which lead to errors that typically accumulate hindering our ability to perform long computations reliably. Progress towards scalable and robust quantum computation relies on exploiting quantum error correction (QEC) to actively battle these undesired effects. In this work, we present a comprehensive study of crosstalk errors in a quantum-computing architecture based on a single string of ions confined by a radio-frequency trap, and manipulated by individually-addressed laser beams. This type of errors affects spectator qubits that, ideally, should remain unaltered during the application of single- and two-qubit quantum gates addressed at a different set of active qubits. We microscopically model crosstalk errors from first principles and present a detailed study showing the importance of using a coherent vs incoherent error modelling and, moreover, discuss strategies to actively suppress this crosstalk at the gate level. Finally, we study the impact of residual crosstalk errors on the performance of fault-tolerant QEC numerically, identifying the experimental target values that need to be achieved in near-term trapped-ion experiments to reach the break-even point for beneficial QEC with low-distance topological codes.

Experimental realization of noncyclic geometric gates with shortcut to adiabaticity in a superconducting circuit

Possessing the noise-resilience feature, geometric phases have become important in robust quantum computation. Gates based on the Abelian and non-Abelian geometric phases have been experimentally demonstrated in different physical systems. However, previous proposals require cyclic evolution with a constant operation time even for small rotation angles, which set a limit to the gate operation time. Here, we experimentally realize noncyclic geometric gates, where the cyclic condition is removed and the operation time is proportional to the rotation angle. With the adiabatic process sped up by shortcut to adiabaticity, the fidelities of a noncyclic geometric gate characterized by randomized benchmarking are above 99.5%. Comparing with the dynamic scheme, we demonstrate the robustness of our gate against control instability in the experiment. Moreover, our results indicate that the noncyclic geometric gate with a smaller rotation angle corresponds to a shorter evolution time and higher fidelity. As small rotation angles are essential in the quantum algorithm, the superiority of noncyclic geometric gates makes them promising candidates in fast and robust quantum computation.