arXiv subjects

Andreas Walther

Publications and source records attributed to Andreas Walther.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

High connectivity quantum processor nodes using single-ion-qubits in rare-earth-ion-doped crystals

We present two protocols for constructing quantum processor nodes in randomly doped rare-earth-ion crystals and analyze their properties. By varying the doping concentration and the accessible laser tunability, the processor nodes can contain anywhere from only a few tens to almost $1000$ qubits. Furthermore, the average number of qubits each qubit can interact with, denoted by the connectivity, can be partly tailored to lie between just a few and roughly one hundred. We also study how a limited tunability of the laser affects the results, and conclude that a tuning range of $100$ GHz limits the results to roughly $100$ qubits with around $50$ connections per qubit on average. In order to construct an even larger processor, the vision is that several of these quantum processor nodes should be connected to each other in a multi-node architecture via, e.g., optical interfaces or flying qubits in the form of light. Our results are encouraging for establishing the rare-earth-ion-based systems as a quantum computing platform with strong potential and can serve to focus the efforts within the field.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Experimental implementation of precisely tailored light-matter interaction via inverse engineering

Accurate and efficient quantum control in the presence of constraints and decoherence is a requirement and a challenge in quantum information processing. Shortcuts to adiabaticity, originally proposed to speed up slow adiabatic process, have nowadays become versatile toolboxes for preparing states or controlling the quantum dynamics. Unique shortcut designs are required for each quantum system with intrinsic physical constraints, imperfections, and noises. Here, we implement fast and robust control for the state preparation and state engineering in a rare-earth ions system. Specifically, the interacting pulses are inversely engineered and further optimized with respect to inhomogeneities of the ensemble and the unwanted interaction with other qubits. We demonstrate that our protocols surpass the conventional adiabatic schemes, by reducing the decoherence from the excited state decay and inhomogeneous broadening. The results presented here are applicable to other noisy intermediate scale quantum systems.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Designing gate operations for single ion quantum computing in rare-earth-ion-doped crystals

Quantum computers based on rare-earth-ion-doped crystals show promising properties in terms of scalability and connectivity if single ions can be used as qubits. Through simulations, we investigate gate operations on such qubits and discuss how gate and system parameters affect gate errors, the required frequency bandwidth per qubit, and the risk of instantaneous spectral diffusion (ISD) occurring. Furthermore, we examine how uncertainties in the system parameters affect the gate errors, and how precisely the system needs to be known. We find gate errors for arbitrary single-qubit gates of $2.1\cdot 10^{-4}$ when ISD is not considered and $3.4\cdot 10^{-4}$ when we take heed to minimize it. Additionally, we construct two-qubit gates with errors ranging from $5\cdot 10^{-4} \rightarrow 3\cdot 10^{-3}$ over a broad range of dipole-dipole interaction strengths.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Noise Free On-Demand Atomic Frequency Comb Quantum Memory

We present an extension of the atomic frequency comb protocol that utilizes the Stark effect to perform noise-free, on-demand, control. An experimental realization of this protocol was implemented in the Pr$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ solid-state system, and a recall efficiency of 38\% for a 0.8 $μ$s storage time was achieved. Experiments were performed with both bright pulses as well as weak-coherent states, the latter achieving a signal-to-noise ratio of $570 \pm 120$ using input pulses with an average photon number of $\sim 0.1$. The principal limitation for a longer storage time was found to be the minimum peak width attainable for Pr$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$. We employ an adaptation of an established atomic-frequency comb model to investigate an on-demand, wide-bandwidth, memory based on Eu$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$. From this we determine that a storage time as long as 100 $μ$s may be practical even without recourse to spin-wave storage.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Roadmap for Rare-earth Quantum Computing

Several platforms are being considered as hardware for quantum technologies. For quantum computing (QC), superconducting qubits and artificially trapped ions are among the leading platforms, but many others also show promise, e.g. photons, cold atoms, defect centers including Rare-Earth (RE) ions. So far, results are limited to the regime of noisy intermediate scale qubits (NISQ), with a small number of qubits and a limited connectivity, and it is likely that future QC hardware will utilize several existing platforms in different ways. Thus, it currently makes sense to invest resources broadly and explore the full range of promising routes to quantum technology. Rare-earth ions in solids constitute one of the most versatile platforms for future quantum technology. One advantage is good coherence properties even when confined in strong natural traps inside a solid-state matrix. This confinement allows very high qubit densities and correspondingly strong ion-ion couplings. In addition, although their fluorescence is generally weak, cavity integration can enhance the emission greatly and enable very good connections to photonic circuits, including at the telecom wavelengths, making them promising systems for long-term scalability. The primary aim of this roadmap is to provide a complete picture of what components a RE quantum computer would consist of, to describe the details of all parts required to achieve a scalable system, and to discuss the most promising paths to reach it. In brief, we find that clusters of 50-100 single RE ions can act as high fidelity qubits in small processors, occupying only about (10 nm)^3. Due to the high capacity for integration of the RE systems, they be optically read out and connected to other such clusters for larger scalability. We make suggestions for future improvements, which could allow the REQC platform to be a leading one.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Fast and robust creation of an arbitrary single qubit state by nonadiabatic shortcut pulses in a three-level system

High-fidelity qubit initialization is of significance for efficient error correction in fault tolerant quantum algorithms. Combining two best worlds, speed and robustness, to achieve high-fidelity state preparation and manipulation is challenging in quantum systems, where qubits are closely spaced in frequency. Motivated by the concept of shortcut to adiabaticity, we theoretically propose the shortcut pulses via inverse engineering and further optimize the pulses with respect to systematic errors in frequency detuning and Rabi frequency. Such protocol, relevant to frequency selectivity, is applied to rare-earth ions qubit system, where the excitation of frequency-neighboring qubits should be prevented as well. Furthermore, comparison with adiabatic complex hyperbolic secant pulses shows that these dedicated initialization pulses can reduce the time that ions spend in the excited state by a factor of 6, which is important in coherence time limited systems to approach an error rate manageable by quantum error correction. The approach may also be applicable to superconducting qubits, and any other systems where qubits are addressed in frequency.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2016

High resolution transient and permanent spectral hole burning in Ce$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ at liquid helium temperatures

We perform hole burning with a low drift stabilized laser within the zero phonon line of the 4f-5d transition in Ce$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5$ at 2K. The narrowest spectral holes appear for small applied magnetic fields and are $6\pm4$ MHz wide (FWHM). This puts an upper bound on the homogeneous linewidth of the transition to $3\pm2$ MHz, which is close to lifetime limited. The spin level relaxation time is measured to $72\pm21$ ms with a magnetic field of 10 mT. A slow permanent hole burning mechanism is observed. If the excitation frequency is not changed the fluorescence intensity is reduced by more than 50$\%$ after a couple of minutes of continuous excitation. The spectral hole created by the permanent hole burning has a width in the tens of MHz range, which indicates that a trapping mechanism occurs via the 5d-state.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

Fast all-optical nuclear spin echo technique based on EIT

We demonstrate an all-optical Raman spin echo technique, using Electromagnetically Induced Transparency (EIT) to create the different pulses of the spin echo sequence: initialization, pi-rotation, and readout. The first pulse of the sequence induces coherence directly from a mixed state, and the technique is used to measure the nuclear spin coherence of an inhomogeneously broadened ensemble of rare-earth ions (Pr$^{3+}$). In contrast to previous experiments it does not require any preparatory hole burning pulse sequences, which greatly shortens the total duration of the sequence. The effect of the different pulses is characterized by quantum state tomography and is compared with simulations. We demonstrate two applications of the technique by using the spin echo sequence to accurately compensate a magnetic field across our sample, and to measure the coherence time at high temperatures up to 11 K, where standard preparation techniques are difficult to implement. We explore the potential of the technique and possible applications.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Measurement of line widths and permanent electric dipole moment change of the Ce 4f-5d transition in Y_2SiO_5 for a qubit readout scheme in rare-earth ion based quantum computing

In this work the inhomogeneous (zero-phonon line) and homogeneous line widths, and one projection of the permanent electric dipole moment change for the Ce 4f-5d transition in Y_2SiO_5 were measured in order to investigate the possibility for using Ce as a sensor to detect the hyperfine state of a spatially close-lying Pr or Eu ion. The experiments were carried out on Ce doped or Ce-Pr co-doped single Y_2SiO_5 crystals. The homogeneous line width was measured to be about 3 MHz, which is essentially limited by the excited state lifetime. Based on the line width measurements, the oscillator strength, absorption cross section and saturation intensity were calculated to be about 9*10^-7, 5*10^-19 m^2 and 1*10^7 W/m^2, respectively. One projection of the difference in permanent dipole moment, Delt_miu_Ce, between the ground and excited states of the Ce ion was measured as 6.3 * 10^-30 C*m, which is about 26 times as large as that of Pr ions. The measurements done on Ce ions indicate that the Ce ion is a promising candidate to be used as a probe to read out a single qubit ion state for the quantum computing using rare-earth ions.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2012

Controlling fast transport of cold trapped ions

We realize fast transport of ions in a segmented micro-structured Paul trap. The ion is shuttled over a distance of more than 10^4 times its groundstate wavefunction size during only 5 motional cycles of the trap (280 micro meter in 3.6 micro seconds). Starting from a ground-state-cooled ion, we find an optimized transport such that the energy increase is as low as 0.10 $\pm$ 0.01 motional quanta. In addition, we demonstrate that quantum information stored in a spin-motion entangled state is preserved throughout the transport. Shuttling operations are concatenated, as a proof-of-principle for the shuttling-based architecture to scalable ion trap quantum computing.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2011

A single ion as a shot noise limited magnetic field gradient probe

It is expected that ion trap quantum computing can be made scalable through protocols that make use of transport of ion qubits between sub-regions within the ion trap. In this scenario, any magnetic field inhomogeneity the ion experiences during the transport, may lead to dephasing and loss of fidelity. Here we demonstrate how to measure, and compensate for, magnetic field gradients inside a segmented ion trap, by transporting a single ion over variable distances. We attain a relative magnetic field sensitivity of ΔB/B_0 ~ 5*10^{-7} over a test distance of 140 \micro m, which can be extended to the mm range, still with sub \micro m resolution. A fast experimental sequence is presented, facilitating its use as a magnetic field gradient calibration routine, and it is demonstrated that the main limitation is the quantum shot noise.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Observing the phase space trajectory of an entangled matter wave packet

We observe the phase space trajectory of an entangled wave packet of a trapped ion with high precision. The application of a spin dependent light force on a superposition of spin states allows for coherent splitting of the matter wave packet such that two distinct components in phase space emerge. We observe such motion with a precision of better than 9% of the wave packet extension in both momentum and position, corresponding to a 0.8 nm position resolution. We accurately study the effect of the initial ion temperature on the quantum entanglement dynamics. Furthermore, we map out the phonon distributions throughout the action of the displacement force. Our investigation shows corrections to simplified models of the system evolution. The precise knowledge of these dynamics may improve quantum gates for ion crystals and lead to entangled matter wave states with large displacements.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

Demonstration of atomic frequency comb memory for light with spin-wave storage

We present a light-storage experiment in a praseodymium-doped crystal where the light is mapped onto an inhomogeneously broadened optical transition shaped into an atomic frequency comb. After absorption of the light the optical excitation is converted into a spin-wave excitation by a control pulse. A second control pulse reads the memory (on-demand) by reconverting the spin-wave excitation to an optical one, where the comb structure causes a photon-echo type rephasing of the dipole moments and directional retrieval of the light. This combination of photon echo and spin-wave storage allows us to store sub-microsecond (450ns) pulses for up to 20 microseconds. The scheme has a high potential for storing multiple temporal modes in the single photon regime, which is an important resource for future long-distance quantum communication based on quantum repeaters.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2009

Experimental superradiance and slow light effects for quantum memories

The effects of high optical depth phenomena, such as superradiance, are investigated in potential quantum memory materials. The results may have relevance for several schemes, including CRIB, AFC and EIT-based quantum memories, which are based on using ensembles as storage media. It is shown that strong superradiant effects, manifested as decay rates larger than 1/T2*, are present even for moderate values of alphaL < 5, and increases as a function of alphaL. For even higher alphaL, effects like off-resonant slow light is demonstrated and discussed, and finally, the efficiency of time-reversed optimized input pulses are tested. A maximum retrieval efficiency of ~20% is reached, and agreement with the theoretically expected result is discussed.

quant-ph↗