No Arabic abstract
We demonstrate key multi-qubit quantum logic primitives in a dual-species trapped-ion system based on $^{40}$Ca+ and $^{88}$Sr+ ions, using two optical qubits with quantum-logic-control frequencies in the red to near-infrared range. With all ionization, cooling, and control wavelengths in a wavelength band similar for the two species and centered in the visible, and with a favorable mass ratio for sympathetic cooling, this pair is a promising candidate for scalable quantum information processing. Same-species and dual-species two-qubit gates, based on the Moelmer-Soerensen interaction and performed in a cryogenic surface-electrode trap, are characterized via the fidelity of generated entangled states; we achieve fidelities of 98.8(2)% and 97.5(2)% in Ca+ - Ca+ and Sr+ - Sr+ gates, respectively. For a similar Ca+ - Sr+ gate, we achieve a fidelity of 94.3(3)%, and carrying out a Sr+ - Sr+ gate performed with a Ca+ sympathetic cooling ion in a Sr+ - Ca+ - Sr+ crystal configuration, we achieve a fidelity of 95.7(3)%. These primitives form a set of trapped-ion capabilities for logic with sympathetic cooling and ancilla readout or state transfer for general quantum computing and communication applications.
Trapped atomic ions are a leading platform for quantum information networks, with long-lived identical qubit memories that can be locally entangled through their Coulomb interaction and remotely entangled through photonic channels. However, performing both local and remote operations in a single node of a quantum network requires extreme isolation between spectator qubit memories and qubits associated with the photonic interface. We achieve this isolation and demonstrate the ingredients of a scalable ion trap network node by co-trapping $^{171}$Yb$^+ $ and $^{138}$Ba$^+ $ qubits, entangling the mixed species qubit pair through their collective motion, and entangling the $^{138}$Ba$^+ $ qubits with emitted visible photons.
$^{133}text{Ba}^+$ has been identified as an attractive ion for quantum information processing due to the unique combination of its spin-1/2 nucleus and visible wavelength electronic transitions. Using a microgram source of radioactive material, we trap and laser-cool the synthetic $A$ = 133 radioisotope of barium II in a radio-frequency ion trap. Using the same, single trapped atom, we measure the isotope shifts and hyperfine structure of the $6^2 text{P}_{1/2}$ $leftrightarrow$ $6^2 text{S}_{1/2}$ and $6^2 text{P}_{1/2}$ $leftrightarrow$ $5^2 text{D}_{3/2}$ electronic transitions that are needed for laser cooling, state preparation, and state detection of the clock-state hyperfine and optical qubits. We also report the $6^2 text{P}_{1/2}$ $leftrightarrow$ $5^2 text{D}_{3/2}$ electronic transition isotope shift for the rare $A$ = 130 and 132 barium nuclides, completing the spectroscopic characterization necessary for laser cooling all long-lived barium II isotopes.
Trapped ions form an advanced technology platform for quantum information processing with long qubit coherence times, high-fidelity quantum logic gates, optically active qubits, and a potential to scale up in size while preserving a high level of connectivity between qubits. These traits make them attractive not only for quantum computing but also for quantum networking. Dedicated, special-purpose trapped-ion processors in conjunction with suitable interconnecting hardware can be used to form quantum repeaters that enable high-rate quantum communications between distant trapped-ion quantum computers in a network. In this regard, hybrid traps with two distinct species of ions, where one ion species can generate ion-photon entanglement that is useful for optically interfacing with the network and the other has long memory lifetimes, useful for qubit storage, has been previously proposed for the distribution of quantum entanglement over the network. We consider an architecture for a repeater based on such a dual-species trapped-ion system. We propose protocols based on spatial and temporal mode multiplexing for entanglement distribution across a line network of such repeaters. Our protocols offer enhanced performance over previously analyzed protocols for such repeaters.
We study the speed/fidelity trade-off for a two-qubit phase gate implemented in $^{43}$Ca$^+$ hyperfine trapped-ion qubits. We characterize various error sources contributing to the measured fidelity, allowing us to account for errors due to single-qubit state preparation, rotation and measurement (each at the $sim0.1%$ level), and to identify the leading sources of error in the two-qubit entangling operation. We achieve gate fidelities ranging between $97.1(2)%$ (for a gate time $t_g=3.8mu$s) and $99.9(1)%$ (for $t_g=100mu$s), representing respectively the fastest and lowest-error two-qubit gates reported between trapped-ion qubits by nearly an order of magnitude in each case.
Trapped ions constitute one of the most promising systems for implementing quantum computing and networking. For large-scale ion-trap-based quantum computers and networks, it is critical to have two types of qubits, one for computation and storage, while the other for auxiliary operations like runtime qubit detection, sympathetic cooling, and repetitive entanglement generation through photon links. Dual-type qubits have previously been realized in hybrid systems using two ion species, which, however, introduces significant experimental challenges for laser setup, gate operations as well as the control of the fraction and positioning of each qubit type within an ion crystal. Here we solve these problems by implementing two coherently-convertible qubit types using the same ion species. We encode the qubits into two pairs of clock states of the 171Yb+ ions, and achieve fast and high-fidelity conversion between the two types using narrow-band lasers. We further demonstrate that operations on one qubit type, including sympathetic laser cooling, gates and qubit detection, have crosstalk errors less than 0.03% on the other type, well below the error threshold for fault-tolerant quantum computing. Our work showcases the feasibility and advantages of using coherently convertible dual-type qubits with the same ion species for future large-scale quantum computing and networking.