Economou group
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, United States
- Tracked papers
- 18 (2012–2026)
Topics
The most frequent field-map topics among the PI' tracked papers.
Recent papers
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High-performance gates on trapped ion qubits using counterpropagating pulse-shaped laser beams
Abstract
Highly-localized light-matter interactions are necessary for scaling trapped-ion architectures. In hyperfine qubits, counterpropagating beams generate entangling gates by coupling with motion, but this effect is undesirable during single-qubit operations. For that reason, single-qubit gates are traditionally implemented with copropagating beams, and the coexistence of two beam geometries adds hardware and computational overhead. In an effort towards collective performance improvement with minimal overhead, we design and implement pulse-amplitude and dephasing robust dynamically corrected gates using Space Curve Quantum Control (SCQC) and compare them against the constant-amplitude gate implementation. We perform gate set tomography on a four-qubit trapped-ion register, and we discover more than 50% error reduction when robust pulses are used. We find that counterpropagating robust gates often outperform their copropagating counterparts and reach error rates as low as $(3.59 \pm 1.25)\cdot 10^{-3}$, using diamond distance as a metric. This value establishes a laser-driven-gate error reference and is merely an order of magnitude higher than the best reported $\textit{microwave}$ gate on a $\textit{single}$ ion. Additional experiments reveal that robust pulses can effectively suppress non-Markovian errors that grow during runtime. Our work challenges the widely accepted belief that copropagating gates should be preferred for their weak motional coupling and invites the adoption of high-performance robust pulses that suppress multiple noise sources of the trapped-ion error budget.
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Theoretical Analysis and Simulations of Memory-based and All-photonic Quantum Repeaters and Networks
Abstract
Developing and deploying advanced Quantum Repeater (QR) technologies will be necessary to scale quantum networks to longer distances. Depending on the error mitigation mechanisms adopted to suppress loss and errors, QRs are typically classified into memory-based or all-photonic QRs; and each type of QR may be best suited for a specific type of underlying quantum technology, a particular scale of quantum networks, or a specific regime of operational parameters. We perform theoretical analysis and simulations of quantum repeaters and networks to investigate the relative performance and resource requirements of different quantum network paradigms. Our results will help guide the optimization of quantum hardware and components and shed light on the role of a robust control plane. We present our research findings on theoretical analysis and simulations of memory-based first-generation trapped-ion quantum repeaters and networks, and all-photonic entanglement-based quantum repeaters and networks. We study the relative performance in terms of entanglement generation rate and fidelity, as well as the resource requirements of these two different quantum network paradigms.
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Quantifying electron-nuclear spin entanglement dynamics in central-spin systems using one-tangles
Abstract
Optically-active solid-state systems such as self-assembled quantum dots, rare-earth ions, and color centers in diamond and SiC are promising candidates for quantum network, computing, and sensing applications. Although the nuclei in these systems naturally lead to electron spin decoherence, they can be repurposed, if they are controllable, as long-lived quantum memories. Prior work showed that a metric known as the one-tangling power can be used to quantify the entanglement dynamics of sparse systems of spin-1/2 nuclei coupled to color centers in diamond and SiC. Here, we generalize these findings to a wide range of electron-nuclear central-spin systems, including those with spin > 1/2 nuclei, such as in III-V quantum dots (QDs), rare-earth ions, and some color centers. Focusing on the example of an (In)GaAs QD, we offer a procedure for pinpointing physically realistic parameter regimes that yield maximal entanglement between the central electron and surrounding nuclei. We further harness knowledge of naturally-occurring degeneracies and the tunability of the system to generate maximal entanglement between target subsets of spins when the QD electron is subject to dynamical decoupling. We also leverage the one-tangling power as an exact and immediate method for computing QD electron spin dephasing times with and without the application of spin echo sequences, and use our analysis to identify coherence-sustaining conditions within the system.
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Implementing and benchmarking dynamically corrected gates on superconducting devices using space curve quantum control
Abstract
We use Space Curve Quantum Control (SCQC) to design, experimentally demonstrate, and benchmark dynamically corrected single-qubit gates on IBM hardware, comparing their performance to that of the standard gates provided by IBM. Our gates are designed to dynamically suppress both detuning and pulse-amplitude noise, with gate times as short as 88 ns. We compare our gates against those of IBM on two separate IBM devices and across sets of up to 18 qubits. Randomized benchmarking is done utilizing our detuning- and amplitude-robust gates in randomized Clifford circuits containing up to 4000 gates. Our gates achieve error-per-Clifford rates that reach as low as 7$\times10^{-5}$ ($\pm10^{-6}$) and which remain nearly constant as the compound noise is increased up to 4% amplitude noise and up to a detuning noise of 342 kHz; this is in contrast to the IBM gates, which exhibit rates that drop to order $10^{-3}$ across this range. This range is consistent with the commonly reported frequency fluctuations and with the upper bound of the statistical uncertainty in gate calibration. In addition, we investigate the performance across larger noise ranges of up to 20% amplitude and 3.5 MHz detuning noise using quantum process tomography. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate how SCQC can be tailored to different practical use cases by trading off amplitude-robustness for ultrafast 60 ns dephasing-only robust pulses. Our work establishes experimental guidelines for implementing SCQC-designed dynamically corrected gates on a broad range of qubit hardware to limit the effect of noise-induced errors and decoherence.
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Parameterization and optimizability of pulse-level VQEs
Abstract
In conventional variational quantum eigensolvers (VQEs), trial states are prepared by applying series of parameterized gates to a reference state, with the gate parameters being varied to minimize the energy of the target system. Recognizing that the gates are intermediates which are ultimately compiled into a set of control pulses to be applied to each qubit in the lab, the recently proposed ctrl-VQE algorithm takes the amplitudes, frequencies, and phases of the pulse as the variational parameters used to minimize the molecular energy. In this work, we explore how all three degrees of freedom interrelate with one another. To this end, we consider several distinct strategies to parameterize the control pulses, assessing each one through numerical simulations of a transmon-like device. For each parameterization, we contrast the pulse duration required to prepare a good ansatz, and the difficulty to optimize that ansatz from a well-defined initial state. We deduce several guiding heuristics to implement practical ctrl-VQE in hardware, which we anticipate will generalize for generic device architectures.
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Generation of genuine all-way entanglement in defect-nuclear spin systems through dynamical decoupling sequences
Abstract
Multipartite entangled states are an essential resource for sensing, quantum error correction, and cryptography. Color centers in solids are one of the leading platforms for quantum networking due to the availability of a nuclear spin memory that can be entangled with the optically active electronic spin through dynamical decoupling sequences. Creating electron-nuclear entangled states in these systems is a difficult task as the always-on hyperfine interactions prohibit complete isolation of the target dynamics from the unwanted spin bath. While this emergent cross-talk can be alleviated by prolonging the entanglement generation, the gate durations quickly exceed coherence times. Here we show how to prepare high-quality GHZ$_M$-like states with minimal cross-talk. We introduce the $M$-tangling power of an evolution operator, which allows us to verify genuine all-way correlations. Using experimentally measured hyperfine parameters of an NV center spin in diamond coupled to carbon-13 lattice spins, we show how to use sequential or single-shot entangling operations to prepare GHZ$_M$-like states of up to $M=10$ qubits within time constraints that saturate bounds on $M$-way correlations. We study the entanglement of mixed electron-nuclear states and develop a non-unitary $M$-tangling power which additionally captures correlations arising from all unwanted nuclear spins. We further derive a non-unitary $M$-tangling power which incorporates the impact of electronic dephasing errors on the $M$-way correlations. Finally, we inspect the performance of our protocols in the presence of experimentally reported pulse errors, finding that XY decoupling sequences can lead to high-fidelity GHZ state preparation.
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Precise control of entanglement in multinuclear spin registers coupled to defects
Abstract
Quantum networks play an indispensable role in quantum information tasks such as secure communications, enhanced quantum sensing, and distributed computing. Among the most mature and promising platforms for quantum networking are nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond and other color centers in solids. One of the challenges in using these systems for networking applications is to controllably manipulate entanglement between the electron and the nuclear spin register despite the always-on nature of the hyperfine interactions, which makes this an inherently many-body quantum system. Here, we develop a general formalism to quantify and control the generation of entanglement in an arbitrarily large nuclear spin register coupled to a color center electronic spin. We provide a reliable measure of nuclear spin selectivity, by exactly incorporating into our treatment the dynamics with unwanted nuclei. We also show how to realize direct multipartite gates through the use of dynamical decoupling sequences, drastically reducing the total gate time compared to protocols based on sequential entanglement with individual nuclear spins. We quantify the performance of such gate operations in the presence of unwanted residual entanglement links, capturing the dynamics of the entire nuclear spin register. Finally, using experimental parameters of a well-characterized 27 nuclear spin register device, we show how to prepare with high fidelity entangled states for quantum error correction.
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Minimizing state preparation times in pulse-level variational molecular simulations
Abstract
Quantum simulation on NISQ devices is severely limited by short coherence times. A variational pulse-shaping algorithm known as ctrl-VQE was recently proposed to address this issue by eliminating the need for parameterized quantum circuits, which lead to long state preparation times. Here, we find the shortest possible pulses for ctrl-VQE to prepare target molecular wavefunctions for a given device Hamiltonian describing coupled transmon qubits. We find that the time-optimal pulses that do this have a bang-bang form consistent with Pontryagin's maximum principle. We further investigate how the minimal state preparation time is impacted by truncating the transmons to two versus more levels. We find that leakage outside the computational subspace (something that is usually considered problematic) speeds up the state preparation, further reducing device coherence-time demands. This speedup is due to an enlarged solution space of target wavefunctions and to the appearance of additional channels connecting initial and target states.
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Optical control protocols for high-fidelity spin rotations of single SiV$^{-}$ and SnV$^{-}$ centers in diamond
Abstract
Silicon-vacancy and tin-vacancy defects in diamond are of interest as alternative qubits to the NV center due to their superior optical properties. While the availability of optical transitions in these defects is one of their assets, high-fidelity optical coherent control has not been demonstrated. Here, we design novel optical control schemes tailored to these defects. We evaluate the performance of arbitrary single-qubit rotations of the electron spin qubit both in the absence and presence of an external magnetic field, by taking into account both coherent and incoherent errors. We find that rotations in excess of $98.0\%$ ($T=4$~K) and $99.71\%$ ($T=6$~K) can be achieved for Si-V and Sn-V respectively in the presence of realistic relaxation and leakage errors.
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A universal quantum gate set for transmon qubits with strong ZZ interactions
Abstract
High-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates are essential building blocks for a fault-tolerant quantum computer. While there has been much progress in suppressing single-qubit gate errors in superconducting qubit systems, two-qubit gates still suffer from error rates that are orders of magnitude higher. One limiting factor is the residual ZZ-interaction, which originates from a coupling between computational states and higher-energy states. While this interaction is usually viewed as a nuisance, here we experimentally demonstrate that it can be exploited to produce a universal set of fast single- and two-qubit entangling gates in a coupled transmon qubit system. To implement arbitrary single-qubit rotations, we design a new protocol called the two-axis gate that is based on a three-part composite pulse. It rotates a single qubit independently of the state of the other qubit despite the strong ZZ-coupling. We achieve single-qubit gate fidelities as high as 99.1% from randomized benchmarking measurements. We then demonstrate both a CZ gate and a CNOT gate. Because the system has a strong ZZ-interaction, a CZ gate can be achieved by letting the system freely evolve for a gate time $t_g=53.8$ ns. To design the CNOT gate, we utilize an analytical microwave pulse shape based on the SWIPHT protocol for realizing fast, low-leakage gates. We obtain fidelities of 94.6% and 97.8% for the CNOT and CZ gates respectively from quantum progress tomography.