Natural oscillations of a trapped ytterbium ion were used to store Gottesman–Kitaev–Preskill (GKP) codes and to realise quantum entangling gates between encoded qubits. Two error-correctable logical qubits were encoded in distinct motional modes of a single trapped ion and entangled, enabling demonstration of a universal logical gate set for GKP qubits. Precise control of harmonic motion and tailored quantum gate pulses minimised distortion of the GKP lattice and preserved its delicate code structure during operations. Quantum control software with a physics-based model informed gate design to reduce errors. The approach advances fault-tolerant quantum computing by linking bosonic-mode encoding to logical gate implementation.
Research recently published in Nature Physics demonstrates this as a physical reality, tapping into the natural oscillations of a trapped ion (a charged atom of ytterbium) to store GKP codes and, for the first time, realising quantum entangling gates between them. Led by Sydney Horizon Fellow Dr Tingrei Tan at the University of Sydney Nano Institute, scientists have used their exquisite control over the harmonic motion of a trapped ion to bridge the coding complexity of GKP qubits, allowing a demonstration of their entanglement.
Effectively, we store two error-correctable logical qubits in a single trapped ion and demonstrate entanglement between them. We did this using quantum control software developed by Q-CTRL, a spin-off start-up company from the Quantum Control Laboratory, with a physics-based model to design quantum gates that minimise the distortion of GKP logical qubits, so they maintain the delicate structure of the GKP code while processing quantum information.
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