Title:Prototyping a Quantum Computer with Trapped Ions

Abstract: Trapped atomic ions are an ideal system for quantum computation, with optically-accessible qubit states with long coherence times and fidelities exceeding 99% [1]. This combination allows us to take advantage of coherence and entanglement--two distinctly quantum phenomena--to realize one- and two- qubit gates and to explore quantum algorithms that promise to scale better than their classical counterparts on particular problems like factoring large numbers [2]. In this talk, I will describe the trapped ion quantum computing architecture [3,4], share first signals from a new room-temperature surface-electrode-trap universal quantum computing system we are building at the University of Maryland, and present related experiments that use motion on the ion chain instead of the ion's electronic state for quantum simulation.  

[1] NM Linke, et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 114, 13 (2017).

[2] A Montanaro. NPJ Quant. Inf. 2, 15023 (2016).

[3] C Monroe and D Wineland, Scientific American 64-71 (Aug. 2008).
[4] S Debnath, et al. Nature 536, 63 (2016).