Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.
For more information, contact Diego Dalvit.

April 18 , 2006
12:30 PM, Tuesday

Chris Langer,
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO

High fidelity quantum information processing with ions

Abstract

Quantum computers, if built, offer the ability to efficiently solve certain computational problems which have no known efficient algorithm on classical computers. Of these problems, most notably is factoring having implications in the field of cryptography and hence national security. In recent years, multiple groups have experimentally demonstrated all of the DiVincenzo criteria for quantum computation and some simple algorithms in ion-trap systems. However, many roadblocks exist on the journey to build a practical large-scale device. In any large-scale quantum computer, error correcting codes will play a large role, and for these codes to work, the error rates in the processor must be suppressed to very low levels. I will discuss our progress at NIST in reducing the errors in our quantum information processor. In particular, our memory error during the detection interval is on the order of 10^-5, and spontaneous emission errors during a 2-qubit gate interval are less than 10^-4. Our experiments indicate that with sufficient laser power, errors due to spontaneous emission can be suppressed even further. Low errors as demonstrated here may make large-scale quantum computation possible.