Search

Full coherent control and generation of superpositions of the quantum harmonic oscillator are not only of fundamental interest but are crucial for applications in quantum simulations, quantum-enhanced metrology and continuous-variable quantum computation. The extension of such superpositions to nonclassical states increases their power as a resource for such applications. Here, we create arbitrary superpositions of nonclassical and non-Gaussian states of a quantum harmonic oscillator using the motion of a trapped ion coupled to its internal spin states. We interleave spin-dependent nonlinear bosonic interactions and mid-circuit measurements of the spin that preserve the coherence of the oscillator. These techniques enable the creation of superpositions between squeezed, trisqueezed, and quadsqueezed states, which have never been demonstrated before, with independent control over the complex-valued squeezing parameter and the probability amplitude of each constituent, as well as their spatial separation. We directly observe the nonclassical nature of these states in the form of Wigner negativity following a full state reconstruction. Our methods apply to any system where a quantum harmonic oscillator is coupled to a spin.

Distributed quantum computing (DQC) combines the computing power of multiple networked quantum processing modules, enabling the execution of large quantum circuits without compromising on performance and connectivity. Photonic networks are well-suited as a versatile and reconfigurable interconnect layer for DQC; remote entanglement shared between matter qubits across the network enables all-to-all logical connectivity via quantum gate teleportation (QGT). For a scalable DQC architecture, the QGT implementation must be deterministic and repeatable; until now, there has been no demonstration satisfying these requirements. We experimentally demonstrate the distribution of quantum computations between two photonically interconnected trapped-ion modules. The modules are separated by $\sim$ 2 m, and each contains dedicated network and circuit qubits. By using heralded remote entanglement between the network qubits, we deterministically teleport a controlled-Z gate between two circuit qubits in separate modules, achieving 86% fidelity. We then execute Grover's search algorithm - the first implementation of a distributed quantum algorithm comprising multiple non-local two-qubit gates - and measure a 71% success rate. Furthermore, we implement distributed iSWAP and SWAP circuits, compiled with 2 and 3 instances of QGT, respectively, demonstrating the ability to distribute arbitrary two-qubit operations. As photons can be interfaced with a variety of systems, this technique has applications extending beyond trapped-ion quantum computers, providing a viable pathway towards large-scale quantum computing for a range of physical platforms., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

Quantum state preparation for trapped-ion qubits often relies on high-quality circularly-polarised light, which may be difficult to achieve with chip-based integrated optics technology. We propose and implement a hybrid optical/microwave scheme for intermediate-field hyperfine qubits which instead relies on frequency selectivity. Experimentally, we achieve $99.94\%$ fidelity for linearly-polarised ($\sigma^+$/$\sigma^-$) light, using $^{43}$Ca$^+$ at 28.8 mT. We find that the fidelity remains above $99.8\%$ for a mixture of all polarisations ($\sigma^+$/$\sigma^-$/$\pi$). We calculate that the method is capable of $99.99\%$ fidelity in $^{43}$Ca$^+$, and even higher fidelities in heavier ions such as $^\text{137}$Ba$^\text{+}$.

We report the first experimental demonstration of the odd-cycle game. We entangle two ions separated by ~2 m and the players use them to win the odd-cycle game with a probability ~26 sigma above that allowed by the best classical strategy. The experiment implements the optimal quantum strategy, is free of loopholes, and achieves 97.8(3) % of the theoretical limit to the quantum winning probability. We perform the associated Bell test and measure a nonlocal content of 0.54(2) -- the largest value for physically separate devices, free of the detection loophole, ever observed.

Quantum harmonic oscillators model a wide variety of phenomena ranging from electromagnetic fields to vibrations of atoms in molecules. Their excitations can be represented by bosons such as photons, single particles of light, or phonons, the quanta of vibrational energy. Linear interactions that only create and annihilate single bosons can generate coherent states of light or motion. Introducing nth-order nonlinear interactions, that instead involve n bosons, leads to increasingly complex quantum behaviour. For example, second-order interactions enable squeezing, used to enhance the precision of measurements beyond classical limits, while higher-order interactions create non-Gaussian states essential for continuous-variable quantum computation. However, generating nonlinear interactions is challenging, typically requiring higher-order derivatives of the driving field or specialized hardware. Hybrid systems, where linear interactions couple an oscillator to an additional spin, offer a solution and are readily available across many platforms. Here, using the spin of a single trapped ion coupled to its motion, we employ two linear interactions to demonstrate up to fourth-order bosonic interactions; we focus on generalised squeezing interactions and demonstrate squeezing, trisqueezing, and quadsqueezing. We characterise these interactions, including their spin dependence, and reconstruct the Wigner function of the resulting states. We also discuss the scaling of the interaction strength, where we drive the quadsqueezing interaction more than 100 times faster than using conventional techniques. Our method presents no fundamental limit in the interaction order n and applies to any platform supporting spin-dependent linear interactions. Strong higher-order nonlinear interactions unlock the study of fundamental quantum optics, quantum simulation, and computation in a hitherto unexplored regime.

Microwave-driven logic is a promising alternative to laser control in scaling trapped-ion based quantum processors. However, such electronic gates have yet to match the speed offered by their laser-driven counterparts. Here, we implement M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen two-qubit gates on $^{43}\text{Ca}^+$ hyperfine clock qubits in a cryogenic ($\approx25~\text{K}$) surface trap, driven by near-field microwaves. We achieve gate durations of $154~\mu\text{s}$ (with $1.0(2)\%$ error) and $331~\mu\text{s}$ ($0.5(1)\%$ error), which approaches the performance of typical laser-driven gates. In the $331~\mu\text{s}$ gate, we demonstrate a new Walsh-modulated dynamical decoupling scheme which suppresses errors due to fluctuations in the qubit frequency as well as imperfections in the decoupling drive itself.

Reducing errors in quantum gates is critical to the development of quantum computers. To do so, any distortions in the control signals should be identified, however, conventional tools are not always applicable when part of the system is under high vacuum, cryogenic, or microscopic. Here, we demonstrate a method to detect and compensate for amplitude-dependent phase changes, using the qubit itself as a probe. The technique is implemented using a microwave-driven trapped ion qubit, where correcting phase distortions leads to a three-fold improvement in single-qubit gate error, to attain state-of-the-art performance benchmarked at $1.6(4)\times 10^{-6}$ error per Clifford gate.

A leading approach to implementing small-scale quantum computers has been to use laser beams, focused to micron spot sizes, to address and entangle trapped ions in a linear crystal. Here we propose a method to implement individually-addressed entangling gate interactions, but driven by microwave fields, with a spatial-resolution of a few microns, corresponding to $10^{-5}$ microwave wavelengths. We experimentally demonstrate the ability to suppress the effect of the state-dependent force using a single ion, and find the required interaction introduces $3.7(4)\times 10^{-4}$ error per emulated gate in a single-qubit benchmarking sequence. We model the scheme for a 17-qubit ion crystal, and find that any pair of ions should be addressable with an average crosstalk error of $\sim 10^{-5}$.

We use electronic microwave control methods to implement addressed single-qubit gates with high speed and fidelity, for $^{43}\text{Ca}^{+}$ hyperfine "atomic clock" qubits in a cryogenic (100K) surface trap. For a single qubit, we benchmark an error of $1.5$ $\times$ $10^{-6}$ per Clifford gate (implemented using $600~\text{ns}$ $\pi/2$-pulses). For two qubits in the same trap zone (ion separation $5~\mu\text{m}$), we use a spatial microwave field gradient, combined with an efficient 4-pulse scheme, to implement independent addressed gates. Parallel randomized benchmarking on both qubits yields an average error $3.4$ $\times$ $10^{-5}$ per addressed $\pi/2$-gate. The scheme scales theoretically to larger numbers of qubits in a single register.

All laser-driven entangling operations for trapped-ion qubits have hitherto been performed without control of the optical phase of the light field, which precludes independent tuning of the carrier and motional coupling. By placing $^{88}$Sr$^+$ ions in a $\lambda=674$ nm standing wave, whose relative position is controlled to $\approx\lambda/100$, we suppress the carrier coupling by a factor of $18$, while coherently enhancing the spin-motion coupling. We experimentally demonstrate that the off-resonant carrier coupling imposes a speed limit for conventional traveling-wave M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen gates; we use the standing wave to surpass this limit and achieve a gate duration of $15\ \mu$s, restricted by the available laser power., Comment: S. Saner and O. B\u{a}z\u{a}van contributed equally to this work

We report the first hybrid matter-photon implementation of verifiable blind quantum computing. We use a trapped-ion quantum server and a client-side photonic detection system networked via a fibre-optic quantum link. The availability of memory qubits and deterministic entangling gates enables interactive protocols without post-selection - key requirements for any scalable blind server, which previous realisations could not provide. We quantify the privacy at <~0.03 leaked classical bits per qubit. This experiment demonstrates a path to fully verified quantum computing in the cloud.

We integrate a long-lived memory qubit into a mixed-species trapped-ion quantum network node. Ion-photon entanglement first generated with a network qubit in Sr-88 is transferred to Ca-43 with 0.977(7) fidelity, and mapped to a robust memory qubit. We then entangle the network qubit with a second photon, without affecting the memory qubit. We perform quantum state tomography to show that the fidelity of ion-photon entanglement decays ~70 times slower on the memory qubit. Dynamical decoupling further extends the storage duration; we measure an ion-photon entanglement fidelity of 0.81(4) after 10s.

We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of a cryogenic ion trap system for the implementation of quantum logic driven by near-field microwaves. The trap incorporates an on-chip microwave resonator with an electrode geometry designed to null the microwave field component that couples directly to the qubit, while giving a large field gradient for driving entangling logic gates. We map the microwave field using a single $^{43}$Ca$^+$ ion, and measure the ion trapping lifetime and motional mode heating rates for one and two ions., Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures

A single bichromatic field near-resonant to a qubit transition is typically used for $\hat{\sigma}_x$ or $\hat{\sigma}_y$ M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen type interactions in trapped ion systems. Using this field configuration, it is also possible to synthesize a $\hat{\sigma}_z$ spin-dependent force by merely adjusting the beat-note frequency. Here, we expand on previous work and present a comprehensive theoretical and experimental investigation of this scheme with a laser near-resonant to a quadrupole transition in $^{88}$Sr$^+$. Further, we characterise its robustness to optical phase and qubit frequency offsets, and demonstrate its versatility by entangling optical, metastable, and ground state qubits., Comment: O. B\u{a}z\u{a}van and S. Saner contributed equally to this work

Optical atomic clocks are our most precise tools to measure time and frequency. They enable precision frequency comparisons between atoms in separate locations to probe the space-time variation of fundamental constants, the properties of dark matter, and for geodesy. Measurements on independent systems are limited by the standard quantum limit (SQL); measurements on entangled systems, in contrast, can surpass the SQL to reach the ultimate precision allowed by quantum theory - the so-called Heisenberg limit. While local entangling operations have been used to demonstrate this enhancement at microscopic distances, frequency comparisons between remote atomic clocks require rapid high-fidelity entanglement between separate systems that have no intrinsic interactions. We demonstrate the first quantum network of entangled optical clocks using two $^{88}$Sr$^+$ ions separated by a macroscopic distance (2 m), that are entangled using a photonic link. We characterise the entanglement enhancement for frequency comparisons between the ions. We find that entanglement reduces the measurement uncertainty by a factor close to $\sqrt{2}$, as predicted for the Heisenberg limit, thus halving the number of measurements required to reach a given precision. Practically, today's optical clocks are typically limited by laser dephasing; in this regime, we find that using entangled clocks confers an even greater benefit, yielding a factor 4 reduction in the number of measurements compared to conventional correlation spectroscopy techniques. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate this enhancement for measuring a frequency shift applied to one of the clocks. Our results show that quantum networks have now attained sufficient maturity for enhanced metrology. This two-node network could be extended to additional nodes, to other species of trapped particles, or to larger entangled systems via local operations.

Cryptographic key exchange protocols traditionally rely on computational conjectures such as the hardness of prime factorisation to provide security against eavesdropping attacks. Remarkably, quantum key distribution protocols like the one proposed by Bennett and Brassard provide information-theoretic security against such attacks, a much stronger form of security unreachable by classical means. However, quantum protocols realised so far are subject to a new class of attacks exploiting implementation defects in the physical devices involved, as demonstrated in numerous ingenious experiments. Following the pioneering work of Ekert proposing the use of entanglement to bound an adversary's information from Bell's theorem, we present here the experimental realisation of a complete quantum key distribution protocol immune to these vulnerabilities. We achieve this by combining theoretical developments on finite-statistics analysis, error correction, and privacy amplification, with an event-ready scheme enabling the rapid generation of high-fidelity entanglement between two trapped-ion qubits connected by an optical fibre link. The secrecy of our key is guaranteed device-independently: it is based on the validity of quantum theory, and certified by measurement statistics observed during the experiment. Our result shows that provably secure cryptography with real-world devices is possible, and paves the way for further quantum information applications based on the device-independence principle., Comment: 5+1 pages in main text and methods with 4 figures and 1 table; 42 pages of supplementary material (replaced with revision accepted for publication in Nature; original title: "Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution")

Precise control of charged particles in radio-frequency (Paul) traps requires minimising excess micromotion induced by stray electric fields. We present a method to detect and compensate such fields through amplitude modulation of the radio-frequency trapping field. Modulation at frequencies close to the motional modes of the trapped particle excites coherent motion whose amplitude linearly depends on the stray field. In trapped-ion experiments, this motion can be detected by recording the arrival times of photons scattered during laser cooling. Only a single laser beam is required to resolve fields in multiple directions. In a demonstration using a $^{88}\mathrm{Sr}^{+}$ ion in a surface electrode trap, we achieve a sensitivity of $0.1\, \mathrm{V}\, \mathrm{m}^{-1}\, /\, \sqrt{\mathrm{Hz}}$ and a minimal uncertainty of $0.015\, \mathrm{V}\, \mathrm{m}^{-1}$., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures (+appendix of 5 pages, 4 figures)

We report precision measurements of the nuclear magnetic moment of \textsuperscript{43}Ca\textsuperscript{+}, made by microwave spectroscopy of the 4s $^2$S$_{1/2}$ $\left|F=4, M=0\right\rangle \rightarrow \left|F=3, M=1\right\rangle$ ground level hyperfine clock transition at a magnetic field of $\approx$ 146 G, using a single laser-cooled ion in a Paul trap. We measure a clock transition frequency of $f = 3199941076.920 \pm 0.046$ Hz, from which we determine $\mu_I / \mu_{\rm{N}} = -1.315350(9)(1)$, where the uncertainty (9) arises from uncertainty in the hyperfine $A$ constant, and the (1) arises from the uncertainty in our measurement. This measurement is not corrected for diamagnetic shielding due to the bound electrons. We make a second measurement which is less precise but agrees with the first. We use our $\mu_I$ value, in combination with previous NMR results, to extract the change in shielding constant of calcium ions due to solvation in D$_2$O: $\Delta \sigma = -0.00022(1)$.

We implement a two-qubit logic gate between a $^{43}\mathrm{Ca}^+\,$ hyperfine qubit and a $^{88}\mathrm{Sr}^+\,$ Zeeman qubit. For this pair of ion species, the S--P optical transitions are close enough that a single laser of wavelength $402\,\mathrm{nm}$ can be used to drive the gate, but sufficiently well separated to give good spectral isolation and low photon scattering errors. We characterize the gate by full randomized benchmarking, gate set tomography and Bell state analysis. The latter method gives a fidelity of $99.8(1)\%$, comparable to that of the best same-species gates and consistent with known sources of error.

We demonstrate remote entanglement of trapped-ion qubits via a quantum-optical fiber link with fidelity and rate approaching those of local operations. Two ${}^{88}$Sr${}^{+}$ qubits are entangled via the polarization degree of freedom of two photons which are coupled by high-numerical-aperture lenses into single-mode optical fibers and interfere on a beamsplitter. A novel geometry allows high-efficiency photon collection while maintaining unit fidelity for ion-photon entanglement. We generate remote Bell pairs with fidelity $F=0.940(5)$ at an average rate $182\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ (success probability $2.18\times10^{-4}$)., Comment: v2 updated to include responses to reviewers, as published in PRL

Robust qubit memory is essential for quantum computing, both for near-term devices operating without error correction, and for the long-term goal of a fault-tolerant processor. We directly measure the memory error $\epsilon_m$ for a $^{43}$Ca$^+$ trapped-ion qubit in the small-error regime and find $\epsilon_m<10^{-4}$ for storage times $t\lesssim50\,\mbox{ms}$. This exceeds gate or measurement times by three orders of magnitude. Using randomized benchmarking, at $t=1\,\mbox{ms}$ we measure $\epsilon_m=1.2(7)\times10^{-6}$, around ten times smaller than that extrapolated from the $T_{2}^{\ast}$ time, and limited by instability of the atomic clock reference used to benchmark the qubit., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

Atomic physics experiments commonly use millitesla-scale magnetic fields to provide a quantization axis. As atomic transition frequencies depend on the amplitude of this field, many experiments require a stable absolute field. Most setups use electromagnets, which require a power supply stability not usually met by commercially available units. We demonstrate stabilization of a field of 14.6 mT to 4.3 nT rms noise (0.29 ppm), compared to noise of $\gtrsim$ 100 nT without any stabilization. The rms noise is measured using a field-dependent hyperfine transition in a single $^{43}$Ca$^+$ ion held in a Paul trap at the centre of the magnetic field coils. For the $^{43}$Ca$^+$ "atomic clock" qubit transition at 14.6 mT, which depends on the field only in second order, this would yield a projected coherence time of many hours. Our system consists of a feedback loop and a feedforward circuit that control the current through the field coils and could easily be adapted to other field amplitudes, making it suitable for other applications such as neutral atom traps., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

Quantum bits based on individual trapped atomic ions constitute a promising technology for building a quantum computer, with all the elementary operations having been achieved with the necessary precision for some error-correction schemes. However, the essential two-qubit logic gate used for generating quantum entanglement has hitherto always been performed in an adiabatic regime, where the gate is slow compared with the characteristic motional frequencies of ions in the trap, giving logic speeds of order 10kHz. There have been numerous proposals for performing gates faster than this natural "speed limit" of the trap. We implement the method of Steane et al., which uses tailored laser pulses: these are shaped on 10 ns timescales to drive the ions' motion along trajectories designed such that the gate operation is insensitive to optical phase fluctuations. This permits fast (MHz-rate) quantum logic which is robust to this important source of experimental error. We demonstrate entanglement generation for gate times as short as 480ns; this is less than a single oscillation period of an ion in the trap, and 8 orders of magnitude shorter than the memory coherence time measured in similar calcium-43 hyperfine qubits. The method's power is most evident at intermediate timescales, where it yields a gate error more than ten times lower than conventional techniques; for example, we achieve a 1.6 us gate with fidelity 99.8%. Still faster gates are possible at the price of higher laser intensity. The method requires only a single amplitude-shaped pulse and one pair of beams derived from a continuous-wave laser, and offers the prospect of combining the unrivalled coherence properties, operation fidelities and optical connectivity of trapped-ion qubits with the sub-microsecond logic speeds usually associated with solid state devices., Comment: author submitted version

We describe a simple approach to the problem of incorporating the response time of an atom or ion being Doppler-cooled into the theory of the cooling process. The system being cooled does not in general respond instantly to the changing laser frequencies it experiences in its rest frame, and this "dynamic effect" can affect significantly the temperatures attainable. It is particularly important for trapped ions when there is a slow decay out of the cooling cycle requiring the use of a repumping beam. We treat the cases of trapped ions with two and three internal states, then apply the theory to $^{40}{\rm Ca}^+$. For this ion experimental data exist showing the ion to be cold under conditions for which heating is predicted if the dynamic effect is neglected. The present theory accounts for the observed behaviour., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures

We demonstrate a two-qubit logic gate driven by near-field microwaves in a room-temperature microfabricated ion trap. We measure a gate fidelity of 99.7(1)\%, which is above the minimum threshold required for fault-tolerant quantum computing. The gate is applied directly to $^{43}$Ca$^+$ "atomic clock" qubits (coherence time $T_2^*\approx 50\,\mathrm{s}$) using the microwave magnetic field gradient produced by a trap electrode. We introduce a dynamically-decoupled gate method, which stabilizes the qubits against fluctuating a.c.\ Zeeman shifts and avoids the need to null the microwave field.

Individual addressing of qubits is essential for scalable quantum computation. Spatial addressing allows unlimited numbers of qubits to share the same frequency, whilst enabling arbitrary parallel operations. We demonstrate addressing of long-lived $^{43}\text{Ca}^+$ "atomic clock" qubits held in separate zones ($960\mu$m apart) of a microfabricated surface trap with integrated microwave electrodes. Such zones could form part of a "quantum CCD" architecture for a large-scale quantum information processor. By coherently cancelling the microwave field in one zone we measure a ratio of Rabi frequencies between addressed and non-addressed qubits of up to 1400, from which we calculate a spin-flip probability on the qubit transition of the non-addressed ion of $1.3\times 10^{-6}$. Off-resonant excitation then becomes the dominant error process, at around $5 \times 10^{-3}$. It can be prevented either by working at higher magnetic field, or by polarization control of the microwave field. We implement polarization control with error $2 \times 10^{-5}$, which would suffice to suppress off-resonant excitation to the $\sim 10^{-9}$ level if combined with spatial addressing. Such polarization control could also enable fast microwave operations., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

We demonstrate laser-driven two-qubit and single-qubit logic gates with fidelities 99.9(1)% and 99.9934(3)% respectively, significantly above the approximately 99% minimum threshold level required for fault-tolerant quantum computation, using qubits stored in hyperfine ground states of calcium-43 ions held in a room-temperature trap. We study the speed/fidelity trade-off for the two-qubit gate, for gate times between 3.8$\mu$s and 520$\mu$s, and develop a theoretical error model which is consistent with the data and which allows us to identify the principal technical sources of infidelity., Comment: 1 trap, 2 ions, 3 nines. Detailed write-up of arXiv:1406.5473 including single-qubit gate data also

We demonstrate simple and robust methods for Doppler cooling and obtaining high fluorescence from trapped 43Ca+ ions at a magnetic field of 146 Gauss. This field gives access to a magnetic-field-independent "atomic clock" qubit transition within the ground level hyperfine structure of the ion, but also causes the complex internal structure of the 64 states relevant to Doppler cooling to be spread over many times the atomic transition line-width. Using a time-dependent optical Bloch equation simulation of the system we develop a simple scheme to Doppler-cool the ion on a two-photon dark resonance, which is robust to typical experimental variations in laser intensities, detunings and polarizations. We experimentally demonstrate cooling to a temperature of 0.3 mK, slightly below the Doppler limit for the corresponding two-level system, and then use Raman sideband laser cooling to cool further to the ground states of the ion's radial motional modes. These methods will enable two-qubit entangling gates with this ion, which is one of the most promising qubits so far developed., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures

We demonstrate injection-locking of 120mW laser diodes operating at 397nm. We achieve stable operation with injection powers of ~100uW and a slave laser output power of up to 110mW. We investigate the spectral purity of the slave laser light via photon scattering experiments on a single trapped Ca40 ion. We show that it is possible to achieve a scattering rate indistinguishable from that of monochromatic light by filtering the laser light with a diffraction grating to remove amplified spontaneous emission., Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures

Entanglement is one of the most fundamental properties of quantum mechanics, and is the key resource for quantum information processing. Bipartite entangled states of identical particles have been generated and studied in several experiments, and post-selected or heralded entangled states involving pairs of photons, single photons and single atoms, or different nuclei in the solid state, have also been produced. Here, we use a deterministic quantum logic gate to generate a "hybrid" entangled state of two trapped-ion qubits held in different isotopes of calcium, perform full tomography of the state produced, and make a test of Bell's inequality with non-identical atoms. We use a laser-driven two-qubit gate, whose mechanism is insensitive to the qubits' energy splittings, to produce a maximally-entangled state of one Ca-40 qubit and one Ca-43 qubit, held 3.5 microns apart in the same ion trap, with 99.8(6)% fidelity. We test the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) version of Bell's inequality for this novel entangled state and find that it is violated by 15 standard deviations; in this test, we close the detection loophole but not the locality loophole. Mixed-species quantum logic is a powerful technique for the construction of a quantum computer based on trapped ions, as it allows protection of memory qubits while other qubits undergo logic operations, or are used as photonic interfaces to other processing units. The entangling gate mechanism used here can also be applied to qubits stored in different atomic elements; this would allow both memory and logic gate errors due to photon scattering to be reduced below the levels required for fault-tolerant quantum error correction, which is an essential pre-requisite for general-purpose quantum computing., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 isotopes, 1 table

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 $t_g=3.8\mu$s) and $99.9(1)\%$ (for $t_g=100\mu$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., Comment: Preliminary report; more details to be given in a future version. 1 trap, 2 ions, 3 nines

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 $T^*_2=50$ seconds, 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., Comment: Supplementary Information included. 6 nines, 7 figures, 8 pages

We describe the injection locking of two infrared (794 nm) laser diodes which are each part of a frequency-doubled laser system. An acousto-optic modulator (AOM) in the injection path gives an offset of 1.6 GHz between the lasers for driving Raman transitions between states in the hyperfine split (by 3.2 GHz) ground level of $^{43}$Ca$^+$. The offset can be disabled for use in $^{40}$Ca$^+$. We measure the relative linewidth of the frequency-doubled beams to be 42 mHz in an optical heterodyne measurement. The use of both injection locking and frequency doubling combines spectral purity with high optical power. Our scheme is applicable for providing Raman beams across other ion species and neutral atoms where coherent optical manipulation is required., Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures

We propose a surface ion trap design incorporating microwave control electrodes for near-field single-qubit control. The electrodes are arranged so as to provide arbitrary frequency, amplitude and polarization control of the microwave field in one trap zone, while a similar set of electrodes is used to null the residual microwave field in a neighbouring zone. The geometry is chosen to reduce the residual field to the 0.5% level without nulling fields; with nulling, the crosstalk may be kept close to the 0.01% level for realistic microwave amplitude and phase drift. Using standard photolithography and electroplating techniques, we have fabricated a proof-of-principle electrode array with two trapping zones. We discuss requirements for the microwave drive system and prospects for scalability to a large two-dimensional trap array., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

We describe and implement a method to restore the state of a single qubit, in principle perfectly, after it has partially collapsed. The method resembles the classical Hahn spin-echo, but works on a wider class of relaxation processes, in which the quantum state partially leaves the computational Hilbert space. It is not guaranteed to work every time, but successful outcomes are heralded. We demonstrate using a single trapped ion better performance from this recovery method than can be obtained employing projection and post-selection alone. The demonstration features a novel qubit implementation that permits both partial collapse and coherent manipulations with high fidelity., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

Two cw single-mode violet (397nm) diode lasers are locked to a single external-cavity master diode laser by optical injection locking. A double-pass 1.6GHz acousto-optic modulator is used to provide a 3.2GHz offset frequency between the two slave lasers. We achieve up to 20mW usable output in each slave beam, with as little as 25 \mu W of injection power at room temperature. An optical heterodyne measurement of the beat note between the two slave beams gives a linewidth of <=10Hz at 3.2GHz. We also estimate the free-running linewidth of the master laser to be approximately 3MHz, by optical heterodyning with a similar device.

We describe the design, fabrication and testing of a surface-electrode ion trap, which incorporates microwave waveguides, resonators and coupling elements for the manipulation of trapped ion qubits using near-field microwaves. The trap is optimised to give a large microwave field gradient to allow state-dependent manipulation of the ions' motional degrees of freedom, the key to multiqubit entanglement. The microwave field near the centre of the trap is characterised by driving hyperfine transitions in a single laser-cooled 43Ca+ ion., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

We demonstrate a Doppler cooling and detection scheme for ions with low-lying D levels which almost entirely suppresses scattered laser light background, while retaining a high fluorescence signal and efficient cooling. We cool a single ion with a laser on the 2S1/2 to 2P1/2 transition as usual, but repump via the 2P3/2 level. By filtering out light on the cooling transition and detecting only the fluorescence from the 2P_3/2 to 2S1/2 decays, we suppress the scattered laser light background count rate to 1 per second while maintaining a signal of 29000 per second with moderate saturation of the cooling transition. This scheme will be particularly useful for experiments where ions are trapped in close proximity to surfaces, such as the trap electrodes in microfabricated ion traps, which leads to high background scatter from the cooling beam.

Laser-cleaning of the electrodes in a planar micro-fabricated ion trap has been attempted using ns pulses from a tripled Nd:YAG laser at 355nm. The effect of the laser pulses at several energy density levels has been tested by measuring the heating rate of a single 40Ca+ trapped ion as a function of its secular frequency. A reduction of the electric-field noise spectral density by ~50% has been observed and a change in the frequency dependence also noticed. This is the first reported experiment where the "anomalous heating" phenomenon has been reduced by removing the source as opposed to reducing its thermal driving by cryogenic cooling. This technique may open the way to better control of the electrode surface quality in ion microtraps.

We characterise the performance of a surface-electrode ion "chip" trap fabricated using established semiconductor integrated circuit and micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) microfabrication processes which are in principle scalable to much larger ion trap arrays, as proposed for implementing ion trap quantum information processing. We measure rf ion micromotion parallel and perpendicular to the plane of the trap electrodes, and find that on-package capacitors reduce this to <~ 10 nm in amplitude. We also measure ion trapping lifetime, charging effects due to laser light incident on the trap electrodes, and the heating rate for a single trapped ion. The performance of this trap is found to be comparable with others of the same size scale., Comment: 6 pages, 10 figures

We describe the fabrication and characterization of a new surface-electrode Paul ion trap designed for experiments in scalable quantum information processing with Ca+. A notable feature is a symmetric electrode pattern which allows rotation of the normal modes of ion motion, yielding efficient Doppler cooling with a single beam parallel to the planar surface. We propose and implement a technique for micromotion compensation in all directions using an infrared repumper laser beam directed into the trap plane. Finally, we employ an alternate repumping scheme that increases ion fluorescence and simplifies heating rate measurements obtained by time-resolved ion fluorescence during Doppler cooling., Comment: 9 pages, 14 figures; Rewritten section IB and added authors

We describe single-shot readout of a trapped-ion multi-qubit register using space and time-resolved camera detection. For a single qubit we measure 0.9(3)x10^{-4} readout error in 400us exposure time, limited by the qubit's decay lifetime. For a four-qubit register (a "qunybble") we measure an additional error of only 0.1(1)x10^{-4} per qubit, despite the presence of 4% optical cross-talk between neighbouring qubits. A study of the cross-talk indicates that the method would scale with negligible loss of fidelity to ~10000 qubits at a density <~1 qubit/um^2, with a readout time ~1us/qubit., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; simulations added to fig.3, with some further text and figure revisions. Main results unchanged.

We demonstrate sympathetic cooling of a 43Ca+ trapped-ion "memory" qubit by a 40Ca+ "coolant" ion near the ground state of both axial motional modes, whilst maintaining coherence of the qubit. This is an essential ingredient in trapped-ion quantum computers. The isotope shifts are sufficient to suppress decoherence and phase shifts of the memory qubit due to the cooling light which illuminates both ions. We measure the qubit coherence during 10 cycles of sideband cooling, finding a coherence loss of 3.3% per cooling cycle. The natural limit of the method is O(0.01%) infidelity per cooling cycle., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures