Simple Manipulation of a Microwave Dressed-State Ion Qubit

TL;DR

This paper presents a simple method for manipulating dressed-state ion qubits, enabling robust quantum control in the presence of magnetic field fluctuations, demonstrated with a trapped ytterbium ion.

Contribution

The authors introduce an experimentally simpler technique for manipulating dressed-state qubits, allowing general rotations and improving robustness against magnetic noise.

Findings

Successful implementation of qubit rotations using the new method

Demonstrated robustness of dressed-state qubits against magnetic field fluctuations

Applicable to trapped ytterbium ions and potentially other atomic systems

Abstract

Many schemes for implementing quantum information processing require that the atomic states used have a non-zero magnetic moment, however such magnetically sensitive states of an atom are vulnerable to decoherence due to fluctuating magnetic fields. Dressing an atom with an external field is a powerful method of reducing such decoherence [N. Timoney et al., Nature 476, 185], even if the states being dressed are strongly coupled to the environment. We introduce an experimentally simpler method of manipulating such a dressed-state qubit, which allows the implementation of general rotations of the qubit, and demonstrate this method using a trapped ytterbium ion.