Thursday, September 19, 2024, 10:00-16:30 Eastern Time (EDT) at IEEE Quantum Week in Montreal
Trapped-ion quantum computing platforms remain one of the most promising platforms for quantum computing with the best gate fidelities and longest coherence times. However, trapped-ion systems now have a fraction of the number of qubits that superconducting and neutral atom quantum computers have demonstrated. Although higher qubit performance and increased interconnectivity of trapped-ions allow them to remain competitive in the form of higher quantum volume measurements beyond that of any other modality, further technological advances must be developed to increase qubit numbers. Technologies such as advanced shuttling techniques, integrated photonics and detectors, heterogeneous integration, and novel trap designs can all contribute towards scaling to greater number of qubits. This workshop will bring together leaders of the trapped-ion field to discuss state-of-the-art system capabilities and challenges, as well as identify ways to scale future systems.
Abstracts and Speaker Bios
ABSTRACT
| Trapped atomic ions are useful platforms for experimental quantum sensing, simulation, and computation. State-of-the-art ion trap quantum computing systems currently rely on radiofrequency Paul traps for ion confinement. However, recent work has demonstrated the utility of Penning ion traps for controlling large (>100-ion) Coulomb crystals for quantum-enhanced metrology and quantum simulation of Ising spin models using ground-state qubits in a large trap magnetic field (>4 T). At GTRI, we have developed compact Penning traps built with room-temperature permanent-magnet arrays replacing the more traditional cryogenic superconducting coils. Our compact Penning traps enable precise control of high-magnetic-field (~1 T) optical, metastable, or ground (omg) state qubits in a form factor similar to that of traditional Paul traps. Notably, the large Zeeman shifts in the Penning trap permit novel realizations of omg qubits in species without hyperfine structure (e.g. 40Ca+). We describe our demonstration of individual optical addressing of metastable 40Ca+ qubits within rotating triangular arrays using a tightly-focused infrared laser beam, and progress towards sub-Doppler laser cooling and two-qubit entangling gates in the same apparatus. We also describe extensions of this work to few-ion quantum operations in novel surface-electrode Penning traps. This work is funded by LPS, ONR (N00014-20-1-2360), and the DARPA ONISQ program (HR0011-20-C-0046). |
BIO
Dr. Brian Sawyer is a Principal Research Scientist and the Chief Engineer of the Quantum Systems Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. His current research interests include development of novel compact Penning ion traps for quantum information and portable atomic clock applications. Dr. Sawyer received his PhD in the group of Dr. Jun Ye at JILA/University of Colorado in 2010. He subsequently worked in the group of Dr. David Wineland at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a postdoctoral fellow.
ABSTRACT
Trapped ions held in chip-based electrode structures and manipulated using optical fields are a promising candidate system for quantum computing, sensing, and networking. Novel methodologies of control integration provide improved prospects for scaling practical systems by allowing extensibility while maintaining robustness. We present work in developing trap-integrated optics and single-photon detectors, as well as hybrid integration techniques, which together constitute a platform with promise to allow useful trapped-ion quantum computing.
BIO
David Reens is a Technical Staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he has designed and operated trapped ion quantum systems based on strontium ions for the past five years. David’s research emphasizes miniaturization, portability, and surface electric field noise. David received his PhD from JILA, University of Colorado / NIST, where he studied dilute gases of neutral hydroxyl radicals under the direction of Professor Jun Ye.
BIO
| Dr. Kristin (Kristi) Beck is a staff scientist in the LLNL Quantum Coherent Device Physics Group and the director of the Livermore Center for Quantum Science. Her research interests span the quantum computing stack, from device hardware and gate design to testbed architecture. Her current research portfolio includes testing novel control hardware and working with optimal control generation for superconducting transmons; and designing, modeling and testing 3D printed traps for trapped ions. Kristi joined LLNL in 2020. Prior to LLNL, Kristi was a senior physicist at the startup quantum computing company IonQ. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland in 2018. She received her Ph.D. from MIT in 2016, her M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge in 2010 and her BS. in Physics and B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Rochester in 2009. Her scholarship has been recognized through several fellowships including an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and a Winston Churchill Scholarship. |
BIO
Prof Winfried Hensinger is a Professor of Quantum Technologies at the University of Sussex. He heads the Sussex Ion Quantum Technology Group and he is the director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies. Hensinger’s group is working on developing practical trapped-ion quantum computers. In 2016, Hensinger and his group invented a new approach to quantum computing with trapped ions where voltages applied to a quantum computer microchip are used to execute calculations instead of laser beams as in previous approaches. In 2017, leading an international consortium, he announced the first industrial blueprint for building a practical quantum computer with millions of qubits (https://bit.ly/3tCug5O) giving rise to the assertion that is now possible to construct a utility scale quantum computer making use of microwave technology. He is a co-founder of Universal Quantum, a full stack quantum computing company, where he serves as Chief Scientist and Chairman. Hensinger is also an honorary professor at the University of Bristol and he serves on EPSRS’s Physical Sciences Strategic Advisory Team.
ABSTRACT
Quantum processors using linear arrays of trapped ions demonstrate excellent performance on quantum computing benchmarks, but scaling to more qubits will require two-dimensional ion arrays as originally envisioned in the QCCD architecture. Here I will present a technique, recently developed by Quantinuum, for controlling the motion and sorting of multi-species ion crystals in a grid-based surface-electrode trap. By co-wiring control electrodes and using a binary input to exchange voltages at specific sites, site-dependent operations are achieved with a fixed number of analog signals and a single digital input per site—vastly reducing the resources required for wiring up large scale quantum processors in the QCCD architecture. Recent experimental results and implications for Quantinuum’s roadmap will be discussed.
BIO
Rob Delaney is an Advanced Physicist at Quantinuum, where he works on experimental optimization of ion transport in the QCCD architecture. He joined Quantinuum after receiving his PhD in Physics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2022, where his research focused on integrating superconducting qubits with electro-optomechanical transducers to demonstrate novel qubit measurement techniques. Prior to this, he received his MSc in Physics from the University of British Columbia in 2016. Throughout both his PhD and work at Quantinuum, his research has broadly focused on improving techniques for classical control and readout in quantum processors.
ABSTRACT
One of the main challenges to scaling trapped ion quantum computers is optical access to ion qubits. While 2D chip traps provide ion motor control and complex layout possibilities, the designs are currently limited by the need for high numerical aperture for qubit addressing with laser beams. There has been recent success routing light via trap-integrated waveguides, however in order to take full advantage of PIC technology we should also integrate active control of the light. With on chip switches and modulators, light can be routed between computing zones and controlled on chip. This advance has the potential to reduce optical power requirements and allow for denser qubit layouts. In this talk, I will highlight our efforts to integrate Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) modulators into a trapped ion device.
BIO
Dr. Crystal Noel is an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Duke University, where she is part of the Duke Quantum Center. Crystal received her BS from MIT in 2013, and then moved to UC Berkeley for her graduate studies with Professor Hartmut Haeffner. After completing her PhD in trapped ion quantum computation in 2019, she worked with Christopher Monroe at University of Maryland as a postdoc. Dr. Noel started at Duke in 2021 as a Research Scientist before joining the faculty in 2022. Her research spans the field of trapped ions from device engineering and photonics integration to quantum computing systems engineering to high-level algorithms and applications.
Questions?
Reach out to Craig Hogle (cwhogle@sandia.gov) or Will Setzer (wjsetze@sandia.gov)