Try this thought experiment: imagine a small measurable quantity of something—perhaps a grain of sand or a point of light—then cut it in half, again and again. When you reach the smallest quantity, such as a photon of light, you will have created an indivisible quantum particle. Scientists and engineers can control these subatomic particles, or qubits, to design, build, and test revolutionary computers to answer extremely complex scientific questions. Sandia National Laboratories’ Quantum Scientific Computing Open User Testbed (QSCOUT) project takes on both challenges.
The five-year, $25.1 million QSCOUT project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program is advancing research on trapped ion quantum computer technology, one of the major competing technologies for producing full-scale quantum computers. Scientists in an ideal quantum computing world could access processing power exponentially greater than what is available now, even with supercomputers, to solve special classes of exascale problems. Already they are studying multidimensional problems involving simultaneous computation, communication, and sensing (global cybersecurity, for example) using complex mathematical processes known as algorithms.
Processing such volumes of data in a matter of seconds requires a new type of information science. QSCOUT aims to meet this need by providing unrestricted access to quantum hardware internals— the quantum gates and underlying pulse sequences— enabling users to adapt and modify them. Sandia will eventually support and advise users in the functionality of the QSCOUT testbeds, allowing them to realize the potential of high-fidelity quantum computing in a way not yet available to most researchers.
A major challenge confronts quantum technology: the qubits it relies on can be unstable and easily disturbed by the slightest changes in their environment. When that happens, they may experience decoherence, the process whereby they decay and eventually disappear. According to Sandia researcher and QSCOUT project lead, Peter Maunz, trapped ion technology has enormous potential to avoid the decoherence (also called noise) and gate error problems that make it difficult to build and to operate a working quantum computer with integrated quantum circuits.
Maunz explains: “Because trapped ions are identical and suspended by electric fields in a vacuum, they feature identical, nearly perfect qubits well isolated from the noise of the environment and able, therefore, to store and process information faithfully.” Further, he says, “While current small-scale quantum computers without quantum error correction are still noisy devices, quantum gates with the lowest noise have been realized with trapped-ion technology.”
With its focus on trapped ion quantum computer technology, QSCOUT builds on Sandia’s physics and engineering expertise in fabricating microelectromechanical systems and complementary metal oxide semiconductor devices at the Labs’ Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA) facility.
QSCOUT will also assess the potential of near-term quantum hardware by giving researchers access to a trapped-ion quantum computer to address scientific computing applications of interest to other DOE and DOE ASCR projects and programs. With orders of magnitude more power as they gain qubits, quantum computers will help researchers create and optimize complex algorithms that take advantage of quantum computing.
Sandia researcher linked to work
- Peter Maunz
Sponsored by
About QSCOUT
"The goal of QSCOUT is to build, maintain, and provide access to a quantum processor based on trapped ions to the larger scientific community” – Susan Clark, QSCOUT Principal Investigator, Sandia National Laboratories
Associated Publications
Richard Muller, (2022). Sandia QIS Program Overview [Slides] https://doi.org/10.2172/1885883 Publication ID: 80136
Hao Yuan, Wen Bao, Chung Lee, Brian Zinser, Salvatore Campione, Jin Lee, (2022). A Method of Moments Wide Band Adaptive Rational Interpolation Method for High-Quality Factor Resonant Cavities IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation https://doi.org/10.1109/tap.2022.3142281 Publication ID: 76952
Raktim Sarma, Jiaming Xu, Domenico de Ceglia, Luca Carletti, Salvatore Campione, J. Klem, Michael Sinclair, Mikhail Belkin, Igal Brener, (2022). An All-Dielectric Polaritonic Metasurface with a Giant Nonlinear Optical Response Nano Letters https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03325 Publication ID: 80306
Larry Warne, Salvatore Campione, Luis San Martin, Alden Pack, William Langston, Brian Zinser, (2022). Penetration Bounds For Azimuthal Slot On Infinite Cylinder With Finite Length Backing Cylindrical Cavity https://doi.org/10.2172/1854569 Publication ID: 79887
Salvatore Campione, Larry Warne, (2021). Penetration through Slots in Overmoded Cavities IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility https://doi.org/10.1109/temc.2021.3067005 Publication ID: 77837
Salvatore Campione, John Stephens, Nevin Martin, Aubrey Eckert, Larry Warne, Jose Huerta, Robert Pfeiffer, Adam Jones, (2021). Developing Uncertainty Quantification Strategies in Electromagnetic Problems Involving Highly Resonant Cavities Journal of Verification, Validation and Uncertainty Quantification https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4051906 Publication ID: 79164
Richard Muller, (2021). Quantum Computing: NISQ and Beyond https://doi.org/10.2172/1893286 Publication ID: 76320
Richard Muller, (2021). Quantum Systems Accelerator https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1888715 Publication ID: 75859
Raktim Sarma, Jiaming Xu, Domenico de Ceglia, Luca Carletti, Salvatore Campione, J. Klem, Michael Sinclair, Belkin Belkin, Mikhail Mesh, Igal Brener, (2021). Control of Second-Harmonic Generation in All-Dielectric Polaritonic Metasurfaces via Microscopic Control of χ(2) https://doi.org/10.2172/1868865 Publication ID: 78474
Justin Koepke, Jeffrey Ivie, Quinn Campbell, Mitchell Brickson, Peter Schultz, Richard Muller, Andrew Baczewski, Andrew Mounce, Ezra Bussmann, Shashank Misra, (2021). Stochastic atomistic disorder in atomic-precision doping https://doi.org/10.2172/1855714 Publication ID: 77610
Brian Freno, William Johnson, Brian Zinser, Donald Wilton, Francesca Vipiana, Salvatore Campione, (2021). Characterization and integration of the singular test integrals in the method‐of‐moments implementation of the electric‐field integral equation Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enganabound.2020.12.015 Publication ID: 75057
Mitchell Brickson, Quinn Campbell, Jeffrey Ivie, Justin Koepke, Peter Schultz, Richard Muller, Ezra Bussmann, Andrew Baczewski, Andrew Mounce, Shashank Misra, (2021). Signatures of missing donors in transport through atomically precise P donor chains in Si https://doi.org/10.2172/1854311 Publication ID: 77453
Quinn Campbell, Jeffrey Ivie, Justin Koepke, Mitchell Brickson, Peter Schultz, Richard Muller, Ezra Bussmann, Andrew Baczewski, Andrew Mounce, Shashank Misra, (2021). A chemical model for atomic-precision single-donor incorporation of phosphorus atoms in Si(100)-2×1 https://doi.org/10.2172/1854314 Publication ID: 77455
Brian Freno, William Johnson, Brian Zinser, Donald Wilton, Francesca Vipiana, Salvatore Campione, (2021). Symmetric Triangle Quadrature Rules for Arbitrary Functions https://doi.org/10.2172/1847207 Publication ID: 77313
Brian Zinser, Samuel Blake, Robert Pfeiffer, Andy Huang, John Himbele, Brian Freno, Vinh Dang, Joseph Kotulski, Sivasankaran Rajamanickam, William Johnson, Salvatore Campione, William Langston, (2021). Gemma: An Electromagnetic Code for Heterogeneous Computer Architectures https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1847565 Publication ID: 77268
Raktim Sarma, Nishant Nookala, Kevin Reilly, Sheng Liu, Domenico De Ceglia, Luca Carletti, Michael Goldflam, Salvatore Campione, Keshab Sapkota, Huck Green, George Wang, J. Klem, Michael Sinclair, Mikhail Belkin, Igal Brener, (2021). Strong Coupling in All-Dielectric Intersubband Polaritonic Metasurfaces Nano Letters https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c03744 Publication ID: 75130
Salvatore Campione, Larry Warne, William Langston, Roy Gutierrez, Jeorge Hicks, Isak Reines, Robert Pfeiffer, John Himbele, Jeffery Williams, (2021). Penetration through slots in cylindrical cavities with cavity modes overlapping with the first slot resonance Electromagnetics https://doi.org/10.1080/02726343.2021.1879356 Publication ID: 75083
Adam Jones, Salvatore Campione, John Stephens, Aubrey Eckert, Larry Warne, Jose Huerta, Robert Pfeiffer, (2020). UNCERTAINTY QUANTIFICATION IN ELECTROMAGNETIC https://doi.org/10.2172/1837143 Publication ID: 72233
Ross Guttromson, Craig Lawton, Matthew Halligan, Dale Huber, Jack Flicker, Matthew Hoffman, Tyler Bowman, Salvatore Campione, Paul Clem, Andrew Fiero, Clifford Hansen, Rodrigo Llanes, Robert Pfeiffer, Brian Pierre, Luis San Martin, David Sanabria, Richard Schiek, Oleksiy Slobodyan, Larry Warne, (2020). Electromagnetic Pulse – Resilient Electric Grid for National Security: Research Program Executive Summary https://doi.org/10.2172/1879618 Publication ID: 71301
Salvatore Campione, Larry Warne, William Langston, Robert Pfeiffer, Nevin Martin, Jeffery Williams, Roy Gutierrez, Isak Reines, Jose Huerta, Vinh Dang, (2020). Penetration through Slots in Cylindrical Cavities Operating at Fundamental Cavity Modes IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility https://doi.org/10.1109/TEMC.2020.2977600 Publication ID: 72872
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