Quantum Circuit Compiler for a Shuttling-Based Trapped-Ion Quantum Computer

TL;DR

This paper introduces a specialized compiler for shuttling-based trapped-ion quantum computers that optimizes quantum circuits, significantly reducing gate counts and enhancing efficiency tailored to this architecture.

Contribution

The work presents a novel compiler with custom algorithms for shuttling-based trapped-ion hardware, improving circuit optimization over existing tools.

Findings

Gate counts reduced by up to 5.1 times compared to Pytket.

Gate counts reduced by up to 2.2 times compared to Qiskit.

Effective across a wide range of quantum circuits.

Abstract

The increasing capabilities of quantum computing hardware and the challenge of realizing deep quantum circuits require fully automated and efficient tools for compiling quantum circuits. To express arbitrary circuits in a sequence of native gates specific to the quantum computer architecture, it is necessary to make algorithms portable across the landscape of quantum hardware providers. In this work, we present a compiler capable of transforming and optimizing a quantum circuit targeting a shuttling-based trapped-ion quantum processor. It consists of custom algorithms set on top of the quantum circuit framework Pytket. The performance was evaluated for a wide range of quantum circuits and the results show that the gate counts can be reduced by factors up to 5.1 compared to standard Pytket and up to 2.2 compared to standard Qiskit compilation.