No Arabic abstract
We propose to experimentally explore the Haldane phase in spin-one XXZ antiferromagnetic chains using trapped ions. We show how to adiabatically prepare the ground states of the Haldane phase, demonstrate their robustness against sources of experimental noise, and propose ways to detect the Haldane ground states based on their excitation gap and exponentially decaying correlations, nonvanishing nonlocal string order, and doubly-degenerate entanglement spectrum.
We propose a new scalable architecture for trapped ion quantum computing that combines optical tweezers delivering qubit state-dependent local potentials with oscillating electric fields. Since the electric field allows for long-range qubit-qubit interactions mediated by the center-of-mass motion of the ion crystal alone, it is inherently scalable to large ion crystals. Furthermore, our proposed scheme does not rely on either ground state cooling or the Lamb-Dicke approximation. We study the effects of imperfect cooling of the ion crystal, as well as the role of unwanted qubit-motion entanglement, and discuss the prospects of implementing the state-dependent tweezers in the laboratory.
Trapped ions are a promising tool for building a large-scale quantum computer. However, the number of required radiation fields for the realisation of quantum gates in any proposed ion-based architecture scales with the number of ions within the quantum computer, posing a major obstacle when imagining a device with millions of ions. Here we present a fundamentally different concept for trapped-ion quantum computing where this detrimental scaling entirely vanishes, replacing millions of radiation fields with only a handful of fields. The method is based on individually controlled voltages applied to each logic gate location to facilitate the actual gate operation analogous to a traditional transistor architecture within a classical computer processor. To demonstrate the key principle of this approach we implement a versatile quantum gate method based on long-wavelength radiation and use this method to generate a maximally entangled state of two quantum engineered clock-qubits with fidelity 0.985(12). This quantum gate also constitutes a simple-to-implement tool for quantum metrology, sensing and simulation.
The ability to sensitively detect charges under ambient conditions would be a fascinating new tool benefitting a wide range of researchers across disciplines. However, most current techniques are limited to low-temperature methods like single-electron transistors (SET), single-electron electrostatic force microscopy and scanning tunnelling microscopy. Here we open up a new quantum metrology technique demonstrating precision electric field measurement using a single nitrogen-vacancy defect centre(NV) spin in diamond. An AC electric field sensitivity reaching ~ 140V/cm/surd Hz has been achieved. This corresponds to the electric field produced by a single elementary charge located at a distance of ~ 150 nm from our spin sensor with averaging for one second. By careful analysis of the electronic structure of the defect centre, we show how an applied magnetic field influences the electric field sensing properties. By this we demonstrate that diamond defect centre spins can be switched between electric and magnetic field sensing modes and identify suitable parameter ranges for both detector schemes. By combining magnetic and electric field sensitivity, nanoscale detection and ambient operation our study opens up new frontiers in imaging and sensing applications ranging from material science to bioimaging.
We report on the characterization of heating rates and photo-induced electric charging on a microfabricated surface ion trap with integrated waveguides. Microfabricated surface ion traps have received considerable attention as a quantum information platform due to their scalability and manufacturability. Here we characterize the delivery of 435 nm light through waveguides and diffractive couplers to a single ytterbium ion in a compact trap. We measure an axial heating rate at room temperature of $0.78pm0.05$ q/ms and see no increase due to the presence of the waveguide. Furthermore, the electric field due to charging of the exposed dielectric outcoupler settles under normal operation after an initial shift. The frequency instability after settling is measured to be 0.9 kHz.
Oscillating magnetic fields and field gradients can be used to implement single-qubit rotations and entangling multi-qubit quantum gates for trapped-ion quantum information processing (QIP). With fields generated by currents in microfabricated surface-electrode traps, it should be possible to achieve gate speeds that are comparable to those of optically induced gates for realistic distances between the ion crystal and the electrode surface. Magnetic-field-mediated gates have the potential to significantly reduce the overhead in laser beam control and motional state initialization compared to current QIP experiments with trapped ions and will eliminate spontaneous scattering, a fundamental source of decoherence in laser-mediated gates.