Optical nuclear electric resonance as single qubit gate for trapped neutral atoms

TL;DR

This paper introduces optical nuclear electric resonance (ONER) as a fast, robust method for single-qubit control of nuclear spins in neutral $^{87}$Sr atoms, promising improved quantum operations for quantum technologies.

Contribution

It proposes a novel ONER technique exploiting electric field gradients for nuclear spin control, demonstrating potential for faster, high-fidelity qubit operations in neutral atoms.

Findings

ONER enables faster spin operations than current methods.

Simulations show >99.9% fidelity achievable despite noise.

Identifies optimal magnetic fields and laser parameters for control.

Abstract

The precise control of nuclear spin states is crucial for a wide range of quantum technology applications. Here, we propose a fast and robust single-qubit gate in $^{87}$Sr, utilizing the concept of optical nuclear electric resonance (ONER). ONER exploits the interaction between the quadrupole moment of a nucleus and the electric field gradient generated by its electronic environment, enabling spin level transitions via amplitude-modulated laser light. We investigate the hyperfine structure of the 5s$^2$~$^1S_{0}\rightarrow{}$~5s5p~$^3P_1$ optical transition in neutral $^{87}$Sr, and identify the magnetic field strengths and laser parameters necessary to drive spin transitions between the $m_I$ = -9/2 and $m_I$ = -5/2 hyperfine levels in the ground state. Our simulations show that ONER could enable faster spin operations compared to the state-of-the-art oscillations in this 'atomic qubit'. Moreover, we show that spin-flip operations exceeding 99.9\% fidelity can be performed even in the presence of typical noise sources. These results pave the way for significant advances in nuclear spin control, opening new possibilities for quantum memories and other quantum technologies.