The goal of this article is to review the progress of three-electron spin qubits from their inception to the state of the art. We direct the main focus towards the resonant exchange (RX) qubit and the exchange-only qubit, but we also discuss other qubit implementations using three electron spins. For each three-spin qubit we describe the qubit model, the physical realization, the implementations of single-qubit operations, as well as the read-out and initialization schemes. Two-qubit gates and decoherence properties are discussed for the RX qubit and the exchange-only qubit, thereby, completing the list of requirements for a viable candidate qubit implementation for quantum computation. We start with describing the full system of three electrons in a triple quantum dot, then discuss the charge-stability diagram and restrict ourselves to the relevant subsystem, introduce the qubit states, and discuss important transitions to other charge states. Introducing the various qubit implementations, we begin with the exchange-only qubit, followed by the spin-charge qubit, the hybrid qubit, and the RX qubit, discussing for each the single-qubit operations, read-out, and initialization method
The Landauer principle sets a lower bound on the thermodynamic cost of qubit reset, which is only attainable for the quasistatic process. In this Letter, we explore the collective advantage of qubit reset of coherent qubits in three aspects. First, for the quasistatic process, the thermodynamic cost of collective reset is remarkably lower than parallel reset because of the reduced Hilbert space dimension due to entanglement effects. Second, for the finite-time qubit reset, we prove that the error probability fades away and per-qubit heat production tends the Landauer bound for initially continuous protocols in the thermodynamic limit. Third, we show that qubit reset performance enhances with the increase in the number of qubits. Our results, illustrated by different protocols, provide a blueprint for future quantum device fabrication.
Time-dependent drives play a crucial role in quantum computing efforts with circuit quantum electrodynamics. They enable single-qubit control, entangling logical operations, as well as qubit readout. However, their presence can lead to deleterious effects such as large ac-Stark shifts and unwanted qubit transitions ultimately reflected into reduced control or readout fidelities. Qubit cloaking was introduced in Lledó, Dassonneville, et al. [C. Lledó, R. Dassonneville, A. Moulinas et al., Nat. Commun. \textbf{14}, 6313 (2023)] to temporarily decouple the qubit from the coherent photon population of a driven cavity, allowing for the application of arbitrary displacements to the cavity field while avoiding the deleterious effects on the qubit. For qubit readout, cloaking permits to prearm the cavity with an, in principle, arbitrarily large number of photons, in anticipation to the qubit-state-dependent evolution of the cavity field, allowing for improved readout strategies. Here we take a closer look at two of them. First, arm-and-release readout, introduced together with qubit cloaking, where after arming the cavity the cloaking mechanism is released and the cavity field evolves unde
Mobile spin qubit architectures promise flexible connectivity for efficient quantum error correction and relaxed device layout constraints, but their viability rests on preserving spin coherence during transport. While shuttling transforms spatial disorder into time-dependent noise, its net impact on spin coherence remains an open question. Here we demonstrate systematic noise mitigation during spin shuttling in a linear $^{28}$Si/SiGe quantum dot device. First, by passively reducing magnetic field gradients, we minimize charge-noise coupling to the spin and double the spatially averaged dephasing time $T_2^*(x_n)$ from $4.4$ to $8.5\,μ\text{s}$. Next, we exploit motional narrowing by periodically shuttling the qubit, achieving a further enhancement in coherence time up to $T_{2}^{*,sh} = 11.5\,μ\text{s}$. Finally, we incorporate dynamical decoupling techniques while periodically shuttling over distances exceeding $200\,\text{nm}$, reaching $T_\text{2}^{H,sh}= 32\,μ\text{s}$. For the same setup, we demonstrate that dressed-state shuttling provides robust protection against low-frequency noise with a decay time $T_R^{\text{sh}} = 21\,μ\text{s}$, without the overhead of pulsed contro
For $\cos(2θ)$ qubits based on voltage-controlled semiconductor nanowire Josephson junctions we introduce a single-qubit $Z$ gate inspired by the noise-bias preserving gate of the Kerr-cat qubit. This scheme relies on a $π$ rotation in phase space via a beamsplitter-like transformation between a qubit and ancilla qubit. The rotation is implemented by adiabatically changing the potential energies of the two qubits such as to preserve a double-well potential at all times. This gate constrains the dynamics in the subspace of a $\cos(2θ)$ qubit at all times, therefore yielding high-fidelity operation while preserving the qubit's coherence. We introduce a circuit to realize this gate and support our findings with numerical simulations.
We investigate the rate of superradiant emission for a number of artificial atoms (qubits) embedded in a one-dimensional open waveguide. More specifically, we study the 1D (N+1)- qubit chain where N qubits are identical in respect to their excitation frequency $Ω$ but have different rates of spontaneous emission $Γ_n$, and a single impurity qubit which is different from N qubits by its excitation frequency $Ω_P$ and rate of spontaneous emission $Γ_P$. This system is shown to have two hybridized collective states which accumulates the widths of all qubits. The energy spectrum of these states and corresponding probabilities are investigated as the function of the frequency detuning between the impurity and other qubits in a chain. It is shown that the inclusion of impurity qubit alter the resonance widths of the system only in a narrow range of the frequency detuning between qubits and impurity, where the resonance widths experience a significant repulsion. The photon transmission through disordered N- qubit chain with impurity qubit is also considered. It is shown that a single photon transport through this system is described by a simple expression which predicts for specific photo
Tightly-focused laser beams, or optical tweezers, are essential for analogue and digital quantum simulation with neutral atoms and trapped ions. Despite this, most of the current intuition and theoretical treatment utilizes the paraxial approximation, which breaks down at the focus of optical tweezers. We develop an analytic model, which we use in tandem with numerical simulations, to quantify how non-paraxial effects will manifest in the next-generation of scalable quantum hardware, where tightly focused beams are used for individual qubit control. In particular, we calculate the light potentials of Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian beams driving the quadrupole $^2$S$_{1/2}\rightarrow$ $^2$D$_{5/2}$ transition in $^{40}$Ca$^+$. Longitudinal field components in the beam center cause spatially-dependent Rabi frequencies and AC Stark shifts, leading to unexpected qubit-motion coupling. We characterize single- and two-qubit gate infidelities due to this effect with an analytic model and numerical simulation. We identify regimes where non-paraxial effects should be taken into account for high-precision quantum control. Finally, we highlight that non-paraxial effects are potentially more s
The coherent control of interacting spins in semiconductor quantum dots is of strong interest for quantum information processing as well as for studying quantum magnetism from the bottom up. Here, we present a $2\times4$ germanium quantum dot array with full and controllable interactions between nearest-neighbor spins. As a demonstration of the level of control, we define four singlet-triplet qubits in this system and show two-axis single-qubit control of each qubit and SWAP-style two-qubit gates between all neighbouring qubit pairs, yielding average single-qubit gate fidelities of 99.49(8)-99.84(1)% and Bell state fidelities of 73(1)-90(1)%. Combining these operations, we experimentally implement a circuit designed to generate and distribute entanglement across the array. A remote Bell state with a fidelity of 75(2)% and concurrence of 22(4)% is achieved. These results highlight the potential of singlet-triplet qubits as a competing platform for quantum computing and indicate that scaling up the control of quantum dot spins in extended bilinear arrays can be feasible.
Suppose we can apply a given 2-qubit Hamiltonian H to any (ordered) pair of qubits. We say H is n-universal if it can be used to approximate any unitary operation on n qubits. While it is well known that almost any 2-qubit Hamiltonian is 2-universal (Deutsch, Barenco, Ekert 1995; Lloyd 1995), an explicit characterization of the set of non-universal 2-qubit Hamiltonians has been elusive. Our main result is a complete characterization of 2-non-universal 2-qubit Hamiltonians. In particular, there are three ways that a 2-qubit Hamiltonian H can fail to be universal: (1) H shares an eigenvector with the gate that swaps two qubits, (2) H acts on the two qubits independently (in any of a certain family of bases), or (3) H has zero trace. A 2-non-universal 2-qubit Hamiltonian can still be n-universal for some n >= 3. We give some partial results on 3-universality. Finally, we also show how our characterization of 2-universal Hamiltonians implies the well-known result that almost any 2-qubit unitary is universal.
For quantum computation using photons, performing deterministic quantum gate operations is a challenge due to the probabilistic nature of the photon-photon interaction. Encoding qubits in multiple degrees-of-freedom of photons and controlling operations between them is one of the promising ways to navigate the probabilistic behavior. Using single-photon discrete-time quantum walk in combination with polarization and path degrees-of-freedom, we experimentally demonstrate the realization of a universal set of quantum gates with high fidelity at room temperature. The deterministic realization of quantum gates through photonic quantum walk are characterized via quantum state tomography. For a three-qubit system using a single photon, the first qubit is encoded using polarization information, and the other two qubits are encoded using path information, closely resembling a Galton-board setup. To generate a six-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state, entangled photon pairs are used to entangle the two three-qubit modules on which gate operations are performed. We also provide insights into the mapping of photonic quantum walk operations to quantum circuits and propose methods to resourc
Quantum thermal states are known to be passive, as required by the second law of thermodynamics. This paper investigates the potential for work extraction by coupling a thermal bath to a qubit of either spin, fermionic, or topological type, which acts as a quantum thermal state at different temperatures. The amount of work extraction is derived from the work statistics under a cyclic nonequilibrium process. Although the work statistics of many-body systems are known to be challenging to calculate explicitly, we propose an effective field theory approach to tackle this problem by assuming the externally driven source couples to a specific quasiparticle operator of the thermal state. We show that the work statistics can be expressed succinctly in terms of this quasiparticle's thermal spectral function. We obtain the non-perturbative work distribution function (WDF) for the pure thermal bath without the qubit coupling. With qubit coupling, we get the second-order WDF, from which the physical regime of work extraction can be pinned down precisely to help devise quantum heat engines or refrigerators. Their efficiency or coefficient of performance (COP) can be inferred from the combinati
Quantum optimization solvers typically rely on one-variable-to-one-qubit mapping. However, the low qubit count on current quantum computers is a major obstacle in competing against classical methods. Here, we develop a qubit-efficient algorithm that overcomes this limitation by mapping a candidate bit string solution to an entangled wave function of fewer qubits. We propose a variational quantum circuit generalizing the quantum approximate optimization ansatz (QAOA). Extremizing the ansatz for Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin glass problems, we show valuable properties such as the concentration of ansatz parameters and derive performance guarantees. This approach could benefit near-term intermediate-scale and future fault-tolerant small-scale quantum devices.
Microwave drives play a central role in the control of superconducting quantum circuits, enabling qubit gates, readout, and parametric interactions. As the drive frequencies are typically an order of magnitude smaller than (twice) the superconducting gap, it is generally assumed that such drives do not disturb the BCS ground state. However, sufficiently strong drives can activate multiphoton pair-breaking processes that generate quasiparticles (QPs) and result in qubit errors. In this work, we present a theoretical framework for calculating the rates of multiphoton-assisted pair-breaking transitions induced by charge- or flux-coupled microwave drives. Through illustrative examples, we show that photon-assisted QP generation may affect novel high-frequency dispersive readout architectures, as well as Floquet-engineered superconducting circuits operating under strong driving.
We study the dynamics of a single-photon pulse travelling through a linear qubit chain coupled to continuum modes in a one-dimensional (1D) photonic waveguide. We derive a time-dependent dynamical theory for qubit amplitudes and for transmitted and reflected spectra. We show that the requirement for the photon-qubit coupling to exist only for positive frequencies can significantly change the dynamics of the system. First, it leads to an additional photon-mediated dipole-dipole interaction between qubits which results in the violation of the phase coherence between them. Second, the spectral lines of transmitted and reflected spectra crucially depend on the shape of the incident pulse and the initial distance between the pulse center and the first qubit in the chain. We apply our theory to one-qubit and two-qubit systems. For these two cases, we obtain the explicit expressions for the qubits' amplitudes and the photon radiation spectra as time tends to infinity. For the incident Gaussian wave packet we calculate the line shapes of transmitted and reflected photons.
In some quantum computing (QC) architectures, entanglement of an arbitrary number of qubits can be generated in a single operation. This property has many potential applications, and may specifically be useful for quantum error correction (QEC). Stabilizer measurements can then be implemented using a single multi-qubit gate instead of several two-qubit gates, thus reducing circuit depth. In this study, the toric code is used as a benchmark to compare the performance of two-qubit and five-qubit gates within parity-check circuits. We consider trapped ion qubits that are controlled via Raman transitions, where the primary source of error is assumed to be spontaneous photon scattering. We show that a five-qubit Mølmer-Sørensen gate offers an approximately $40\%$ improvement over two-qubit gates in terms of the fault tolerance threshold. This result indicates an advantage of using multi-qubit gates in the context of QEC.
Scaling up spin qubit systems requires high-fidelity single-qubit and two-qubit gates. Gate fidelities exceeding $98\%$ were already demonstrated in silicon based single and double quantum dots, whereas for the realization of larger qubit arrays crosstalk effects on neighboring qubits must be taken into account. We analyze qubit fidelities impacted by crosstalk when performing single-qubit and two-qubit operations on neighbor qubits with a simple Heisenberg model. Furthermore we propose conditions for driving fields to robustly synchronize Rabi oscillations and avoid crosstalk effects. In our analysis we also consider next to nearest neighbor crosstalk and show that double synchronization leads to a restricted choice for the driving field strength, exchange interaction, and thus gate time. Considering realistic experimental conditions we propose a set of parameter values to perform a nearly crosstalk-free CNOT gate and so open up the pathway to scalable quantum computing devices.
In this paper, we consider teleportation capability, distillability, and nonlocality on three-qubit states. In order to investigate some relations among them, we first find the explicit formulas of the quantities about the maximal teleportation fidelity on three-qubit states. We show that if any three-qubit state is useful for three-qubit teleportation then the three-qubit state is distillable into a Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state, and that if any three-qubit state violates a specific form of Mermin inequality then the three-qubit state is useful for three-qubit teleportation.
Quantum computation requires qubits that can be coupled and realized in a scalable manner, together with universal and high-fidelity one- and two-qubit logic gates \cite{DiVincenzo2000, Loss1998}. Strong effort across several fields have led to an impressive array of qubit realizations, including trapped ions \cite{Brown2011}, superconducting circuits \cite{Barends2014}, single photons\cite{Kok2007}, single defects or atoms in diamond \cite{Waldherr2014, Dolde2014} and silicon \cite{Muhonen2014}, and semiconductor quantum dots \cite{Veldhorst2014}, all with single qubit fidelities exceeding the stringent thresholds required for fault-tolerant quantum computing \cite{Fowler2012}. Despite this, high-fidelity two-qubit gates in the solid-state that can be manufactured using standard lithographic techniques have so far been limited to superconducting qubits \cite{Barends2014}, as semiconductor systems have suffered from difficulties in coupling qubits and dephasing \cite{Nowack2011, Brunner2011, Shulman2012}. Here, we show that these issues can be eliminated altogether using single spins in isotopically enriched silicon\cite{Itoh2014} by demonstrating single- and two-qubit operations i
We introduce a purely geometric formulation for two different measures addressed to quantify the entanglement between different parts of a tripartite qubit system. Our approach considers the entanglement-polytope defined by the smallest eigenvalues of the reduced density matrices of the qubit-components. The measures identify global and genuine entanglement, and are respectively associated with the projection and rejection of a given point of the polytope on the corresponding biseparable segments. Solving the so called `inverse problem', we also discuss a way to force the system to behave in a particular form, which opens the possibility of controlling and manipulating entanglement for practical purposes.
The n-qubit Pauli group and its normalizer the n-qubit Clifford group have applications in quantum error correction and device characterization. Recent applications have made use of the representation theory of the Clifford group. We apply the tools of (the coincidentally named) Clifford theory to examine the representation theory of the Clifford group using the much simpler representation theory of the Pauli group. We find an unexpected correspondence between irreducible characters of the n-qubit Clifford group and those of the (n+1)-qubit Clifford group.