Operating Quantum States in Single Magnetic Molecules: Implementation of Grover's Quantum Algorithm

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the implementation of Grover's quantum search algorithm using a single nuclear spin in a magnetic molecule, employing electric fields for coherent control, and introduces a universal method for multi-level quantum systems.

Contribution

It presents a novel implementation of Grover's algorithm in a single-molecule magnet using electric fields, enabling quantum search in multi-level systems with non-uniform energy spacing.

Findings

Successful implementation of Grover's algorithm in a single nuclear spin system.

Use of electric fields for coherent manipulation of multi-level quantum states.

Universal method applicable to various multi-level quantum systems.

Abstract

Quantum algorithms use the principles of quantum mechanics, as for example quantum superposition, in order to solve particular problems outperforming standard computation. They are developed for cryptography, searching, optimisation, simulation and solving large systems of linear equations. Here, we implement Grover's quantum algorithm, proposed to find an element in an unsorted list, using a single nuclear 3/2-spin carried by a Single Molecular Magnet (SMM) transistor. The coherent manipulation of this multi-level qudit is achieved by means of electric fields only. Grover's search algorithm was implemented by constructing a quantum database via a multi-level Hadamard gate. The Grover sequence then allows us to select each state. The presented method is of universal character and can be implemented in any multi-level quantum system with non-equal spaced energy levels, opening the way to novel quantum search algorithms.