Lemniscate phase trajectories for high-fidelity preparation of GHZ states in trapped-ion chains
Phys. Rev. Applied 26, 024021 – Published 10 August, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/t5s5-v6mf
Abstract
In trapped-ion chains, multipartite Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states can be prepared natively with the help of a single bichromatic laser pulse. However, higher-order terms in the expansion in the Lamb-Dicke parameter limit the GHZ state preparation infidelity for rectangular and bell-like pulses to the order of . For tens of ions, the infidelity caused by out-of-Lamb-Dicke effects can reach several percents. We propose an amplitude and phase-modulated pulse shape, an “echoed lemniscate pulse,” which cancels this contribution into error in the leading order. For the proposed pulse, the infidelity scales as . The improved scaling is achieved because of a special phase trajectory of a collective motional mode following the figure-eight curve (lemniscate). We demonstrate that the lemniscate pulse allows achieving lower infidelity than bell-like pulses, which can be as low as for 20-ion chains.