Erwin Schrödinger Center for Quantum Science & Technology (ESQ)

Improving trapped ion quantum devices using quantum control

Experimental quantum physics is entering a regime of intermediate scale devices with tens of quantum bits. Systems are becoming large enough to explore interesting problems in digital quantum simulation such as high energy physics; however, they are held back both by limitations in control fidelity across larger-scale devices and the impact of noise on quantum gate operations. 

During my ESQ fellowship with the Quantum Optics and Spectroscopy group at the University of Innsbruck, I aim to leverage my previous research in the field of quantum control to improve the performance of intermediate scale trapped-ion quantum devices. This will involve engineering faster single-qubit and entangling gates with built-in error robustness to enable longer, more powerful algorithms with larger numbers of qubits.
In addition, I hope to explore novel methods of entanglement by combining the traditional Mølmer-Sørensen gate with recently highlighted modulation techniques in order to achieve arbitrary qubit-connectivity, allowing for simplified experimental setups. Combined with faster and higher fidelity quantum algorithms, this would vastly broaden the scope of what is possible with current digital quantum simulations, as well as putting active quantum error correction in reach.