arXiv subjects

M. Laforest

Publications and source records attributed to M. Laforest.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2008

Randomized benchmarking of single and multi-qubit control in liquid-state NMR quantum information processing

Being able to quantify the level of coherent control in a proposed device implementing a quantum information processor (QIP) is an important task for both comparing different devices and assessing a device's prospects with regards to achieving fault-tolerant quantum control. We implement in a liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance QIP the randomized benchmarking protocol presented by Knill et al (PRA 77: 012307 (2008)). We report an error per randomized $\fracπ{2}$ pulse of $1.3 \pm 0.1 \times 10^{-4}$ with a single qubit QIP and show an experimentally relevant error model where the randomized benchmarking gives a signature fidelity decay which is not possible to interpret as a single error per gate. We explore and experimentally investigate multi-qubit extensions of this protocol and report an average error rate for one and two qubit gates of $4.7 \pm 0.3 \times 10^{-3}$ for a three qubit QIP. We estimate that these error rates are still not decoherence limited and thus can be improved with modifications to the control hardware and software.

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arXiv2008

Liquid State NMR as a Test-bed for Developing Quantum Control Methods

In building a quantum information processor (QIP), the challenge is to coherently control a large quantum system well enough to perform an arbitrary quantum algorithm and to be able to correct errors induced by decoherence. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) QIPs offer an excellent test-bed on which to develop and benchmark tools and techniques to control quantum systems. Two main issues to consider when designing control methods are accuracy and efficiency, for which two complementary approaches have been developed so far to control qubit registers with liquid-state NMR methods. The first applies optimal control theory to numerically optimize the control fields to implement unitary operations on low dimensional systems with high fidelity. The second technique is based on the efficient optimization of a sequence of imperfect control elements so that implementation of a full quantum algorithm is possible while minimizing error accumulation. This article summarizes our work in implementing both of these methods. Furthermore, we show that taken together, they form a basis to design quantum-control methods for a block-architecture QIP so that large system size is not a barrier to implementing optimal control techniques.

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arXiv2008

Quantum Reference Frames and the Classification of Rotationally-Invariant Maps

We give a convenient representation for any map that is covariant with respect to an irreducible representation of SU(2), and use this representation to analyze the evolution of a quantum directional reference frame when it is exploited as a resource for performing quantum operations. We introduce the moments of a quantum reference frame, which serve as a complete description of its properties as a frame, and investigate how many times a quantum directional reference frame represented by a spin-j system can be used to perform a certain quantum operation with a given probability of success. We provide a considerable generalization of previous results on the degradation of a reference frame, from which follows a classification of the dynamics of spin-j system under the repeated action of any covariant map with respect to SU(2).

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arXiv2007

Quantum information processing using nuclear and electron magnetic resonance: review and prospects

This paper describes recent progress using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) as a platform for implementing quantum information processing (QIP) tasks. The basic ideas of NMR QIP are detailed, examining the successes and limitations of liquid and solid state experiments. Finally, a future direction for implementing quantum processors is suggested,utilizing both nuclear and electron spin degrees of freedom.

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arXiv2007

Using error correction to determine the noise model

Quantum error correcting codes have been shown to have the ability of making quantum information resilient against noise. Here we show that we can use quantum error correcting codes as diagnostics to characterise noise. The experiment is based on a three-bit quantum error correcting code carried out on a three-qubit nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum information processor. Utilizing both engineered and natural noise, the degree of correlations present in the noise affecting a two-qubit subsystem was determined. We measured a correlation factor of c=0.5+/-0.2 using the error correction protocol, and c=0.3+/-0.2 using a standard NMR technique based on coherence pathway selection. Although the error correction method demands precise control, the results demonstrate that the required precision is achievable in the liquid-state NMR setting.

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arXiv2006

Time-reversal formalism applied to maximal bipartite entanglement: Theoretical and experimental exploration

Within the context of quantum teleportation, a proposed intuitive model to explain bipartite entanglement describes the scheme as being the same qubit of information evolving along and against the flow of time of an external observer. We investigate the physicality of such a model by applying the time-reversal of the Schrodinger equation in the teleportation context. To do so, we first lay down the theory of time-reversal applied to the circuit model and then show that the outcome of a teleportation-like circuit is consistent with the usual tensor product treatment, thus independent of the physical quantum system used to encode the information. Finally, we demonstrate a proof of principle experiment on a liquid state NMR quantum information processor. The experimental results are consistent with the interpretation that information can be seen as flowing backward in time through entanglement.

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arXiv2005

Experimental Implementation of Discrete Time Quantum Random Walk on an NMR Quantum Information Processor

We present an experimental implementation of the coined discrete time quantum walk on a square using a three qubit liquid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum information processor (QIP). Contrary to its classical counterpart, we observe complete interference after certain steps and a periodicity in the evolution. Complete state tomography has been performed for each of the eight steps making a full period. The results have extremely high fidelity with the expected states and show clearly the effects of quantum interference in the walk. We also show and discuss the importance of choosing a molecule with a natural Hamiltonian well suited to NMR QIP by implementing the same algorithm on a second molecule. Finally, we show experimentally that decoherence after each step makes the statistics of the quantum walk tend to that of the classical random walk.

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arXiv2004

Robust Quantum Communication Using A Polarization-Entangled Photon Pair

Noise and imperfection of realistic devices are major obstacles for implementing quantum cryptography. In particular birefringence in optical fibers leads to decoherence of qubits encoded in polarization of photon. We show how to overcome this problem by doing single qubit quantum communication without a shared spatial reference frame and precise timing. Quantum information will be encoded in pair of photons using ``tag'' operations which corresponds to the time delay of one of the polarization modes. This method is robust against the phase instability of the interferometers despite the use of time-bins. Moreover synchronized clocks are not required in the ideal situation no photon loss case as they are only necessary to label the different encoded qubits.

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