Resilient entanglement gates for trapped ions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a new entangling gate for trapped ions that is robust against noise and imperfections, reducing cooling requirements for scalable quantum computing.

Contribution

The authors introduce a modified Mølmer-Sørensen gate that enhances robustness against motional heating and frequency fluctuations in ion trap quantum processors.

Findings

Protects against motional heating-induced infidelity

Provides stability against secular frequency fluctuations

Reduces ion cooling requirements for quantum operations

Abstract

Constructing a large scale ion trap quantum processor will require entangling gate operations that are robust in the presence of noise and experimental imperfection. We experimentally demonstrate how a new type of M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen gate protects against infidelity caused by heating of the motional mode used during the gate. Furthermore, we show how the same technique simultaneously provides significant protection against slow fluctuations and mis-sets in the secular frequency. Since this parameter sensitivity is worsened in cases where the ions are not ground state cooled, our method provides a path towards relaxing ion cooling requirements in practical realisations of quantum computing and simulation.