The spin dynamics in two electron double quantum dots embedded in a two-dimensional electron gas at the interface between ${\mathrm{Sr}\mathrm{Ti}\mathrm{O}}_3$ and ${\mathrm{La}\mathrm{Al}\mathrm{O}}_3$ is studied by an exact numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation in the context of the electric-dipole-spin-resonance experiment. On the basis of the three-band model of $3d$ electrons localized at $\mathrm{Ti}$ ions on the square lattice, we analyze in detail the singlet-triplet transition induced by the ac electric field, in the magnetic field range close to the avoided crossing that appears as a result of the spin-orbit coupling. For symmetric double quantum dots the single-photon spin-flip transition is prohibited due to the parity symmetry, and the transition can occur only by the higher-order two-photon processes. For a weakly asymmetric system, when the first-order singlet-triplet transitions are released due to the parity symmetry breaking, the spin-flip transition has a character of the Rabi oscillations for a low electric field amplitude. As the amplitude is increased, the frequency of the transition is blueshifted (redshifted) for the magnetic field below (above) the single-triplet avoided crossing. For a sufficiently high magnetic field and high ac-field amplitude, the electric field drives the system across the avoided crossing, inducing the spin flip by the Landau-Zener-Stueckelberg-Majorana effect. Finally, the optimization of the geometrical parameters of the system with respect to the time of spin flip of its fidelity is also presented.

Exploiting the strengths of different quantum hardware components may increase the capabilities of emerging quantum processors. Here we propose and analyze a quantum architecture that leverages the nonlocal connectivity of optics, along with the exquisite quantum control offered by superconducting microwave circuits, to produce entangled optical resource states. In contrast to previous proposals on optically distributing entanglement between superconducting microwave processors, we use squeezing between microwaves and optics to produce microwave-optical Bell pairs in a dual-rail encoding from a single microwave quantum processor. Moreover, the microwave quantum processor allows us to deterministically entangle microwave-optical Bell pairs into larger cluster states, from which entangled optical photons can be extracted through microwave measurements. Our scheme paves the way for small microwave quantum processors to create heralded entangled optical resource states for optical quantum computation, communication, and sensing using imperfect microwave-optics transducers. We expect that improved isolation of the superconducting processor from stray optical fields will allow the scheme to be demonstrated with currently available hardware.

Advanced simulations and calculations on quantum computers require high-fidelity implementations of quantum operations. The universal gateset approach builds complex unitaries from a small set of primitive gates, often resulting in a long gate sequence, which is typically a leading factor in the total accumulated error. Compiling a complex unitary for processors with higher-dimensional logical elements, such as qutrits, exacerbates the accumulated error per unitary, since an even longer gate sequence is required. Optimal control methods promise time- and resource-efficient compact gate sequences and, therefore, higher fidelity. These methods generate pulses that can directly implement any complex unitary on a quantum device. In this work, we demonstrate that any arbitrary qubit and qutrit gate can be realized with high fidelity, which can significantly reduce the length of a gate sequence. We generate and test pulses for a large set of randomly selected arbitrary unitaries on several quantum processing units (QPUs): the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Quantum Device and Integration Testbed’s (QuDIT’s) standard QPU and three of Rigetti’s QPUs: Ankaa-2, Ankaa-9Q-1, and Aspen-M-3. On the QuDIT platform’s standard QPU, the average fidelity of random qutrit gates is $97.9\pm 0.5\mathrm{\%}$ measured with conventional QPT and $98.8\pm 0.6\mathrm{\%}$ from QPT with gate folding. Rigetti’s Ankaa-2 achieves random qubit gates with an average fidelity of $98.4\pm 0.5\mathrm{\%}$ (conventional QPT) and $99.7\pm 0.1\mathrm{\%}$ (QPT with gate folding). On Ankaa-9Q-1 and Aspen-M-3, the average fidelities with conventional qubit QPT measurements were higher than 99% (see Appendix). We show that optimal control gates are robust to drift for at least 3 h and that the same calibration parameters can be used for all implemented gates. Our work promises that the calibration overheads for optimal control gates can be made small enough to enable efficient quantum circuits based on this technique.

Efficient quantum sensing technologies rely on the precise control of quantum sensors, particularly two-level systems or qubits, to optimize estimation processes. We here exploit the quantum Zeno effect (QZE) as a tool for maximizing information obtainable by quantum sensors, with a specific focus on the level avoided-crossing (LAC) phenomenon in qubit systems. While the estimation of the LAC energy splitting has been extensively studied, we emphasize the crucial role that the QZE can play in estimating the coupling strength. We introduce the concept of information amplification by the QZE for a LAC system under off-resonant conditions. The proposed approach has implications for ac magnetic field sensing and the characterization of complex systems, including many-spin systems requiring the estimation of spin-spin couplings. Overall, our findings contribute to the advancement of quantum sensing by leveraging the QZE for improved control and information extraction.

Error suppression to the experimental imperfections is a central challenge for useful quantum computing. Recent studies have shown the advantages of using single-modulated pulses based on optimal control, which can realize high-fidelity two-qubit gates in neutral-atom arrays. However, typical optimization minimizes only the ideal gate error in the absence of any decay, which allows the gate to be passively influenced by all error sources leading to an exponential increase of the insensitivity when error becomes larger. In the present work, we propose the realization of two-qubit $C_Z$ gates with active robustness against two-photon detuning errors. Our method depends on a modified cost function in numerical optimization for shaping gate pulses, which minimizes, not only the ideal gate error but also the fluctuations of gate infidelity over a wide error range. We introduce a family of Rydberg blockade gates with active robustness towards the impacts of versatile noise sources such as Doppler dephasing and ac Stark shifts. The resulting gates with robust pulses can significantly increase the insensitivity to any type of errors acting on the two-photon detuning, benefiting from a relaxed requirement of colder atomic temperatures or more stable lasers for current experimental technology.

Dissipation engineering offers a powerful tool for quantum technologies. Recently, new superconducting devices have achieved an engineered two-photon dissipation rate exceeding all other relevant timescales. In particular, they have proven most useful in preventing transitions between the logical states $|\pm \alpha ⟩$ of a cat qubit. Here, we present three key applications of strong two-photon dissipation for quantum measurement and control, beyond cat qubit stabilization. Firstly, we demonstrate its efficacy in overcoming limitations encountered in Wigner tomography at high photon numbers. Secondly, we showcase its potential for realizing universal gates on cat qubits, exploiting the coherent mapping between cat qubit states and superpositions of 0 and 1 photons. Finally, we harness the transient dynamics of a cat state under two-photon dissipation to prepare squeezed cat states with a squeezing factor exceeding $3.96\pm 0.07$ dB.

Quantum communication and quantum metrology are widely compelling applications in the field of quantum information science, and quantum remote sensing is an intersection of both. Despite their differences, there are notable commonalities between quantum communication and quantum remote sensing, as they achieve their functionalities through the transmission of quantum states. Here we propose a quantum integrated sensing and communication (QISAC) protocol, which achieves quantum sensing under the Heisenberg limit while simultaneously enabling quantum secure communication through the transmission of entanglements. We have theoretically proven its security against eavesdroppers. The security of QISAC is characterized by the secrecy capacity for the information bit as well as asymmetric Fisher information gain for sensing. Through simulations conducted under the constraints of limited entanglement resources, we illustrate that QISAC maintains high accuracy in the estimation of phase. Hence, our QISAC offers a fresh perspective for applications of future quantum networks.

Satellite-based quantum communication is a promising approach for establishing global-scale quantum networks. In free-space quantum channels, single-mode-fiber coupling plays a crucial role in increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of daylight quantum key distribution (QKD) and ensuring compatibility with standard fiber-based QKD protocols. However, consistently achieving high efficiency and stable single-mode-fiber coupling under strong atmospheric turbulence remains an ongoing experimental challenge. In this study, we experimentally demonstrate an adaptive method based on convolutional neural networks capable of directly estimating phase information from a single defocused image. We developed a convolutional neural network to establish the relationship between intensity distribution and phase information of turbulent distortions. We demonstrate the real-time performance of our deep-learning adaptive method in increasing single-mode-fiber coupling efficiency across various turbulence scales and quantify turbulence frequencies. Notably, the method proved highly effective in strong-turbulence scenarios, with frequencies reaching up to 200 Hz, leading to a significant increase in single-mode-fiber coupling efficiency. We demonstrate the corrective capability of our adaptive method for strong turbulence, enabled by the generalization of the convolutional neural network. Our results offer an efficient solution for daytime free-space QKD applications.

Optical illumination of quantum dot qubit devices at cryogenic temperatures, while not well studied, is often used to recover operating conditions after undesired shocking events or charge injection. Here, we demonstrate systematic threshold-voltage shifts in a dopant-free $\mathrm{Si}$/$\mathrm{Si}$${}_{0.7}$$\mathrm{Ge}$${}_{0.3}$ field-effect transistor using a near-infrared (780-nm) laser diode. We find that illumination under an applied gate voltage can be used to set a specific, stable, and reproducible threshold voltage that, over a wide range in gate bias, is equal to that gate bias. Outside this range, the threshold voltage can still be tuned, although the resulting threshold voltage is no longer equal to the applied gate bias during illumination. We present a simple and intuitive model that provides a mechanism for the tunability in the gate bias. The model presented also explains why cryogenic illumination is successful at resetting quantum dot qubit devices after undesired charging events.

We address the photonic spin-orbit coupling known from nano-optics and plasmonics in the microwave regime. The spin $\mathbf{S}$ and momentum $\mathbf{q}$ of microwaves emitted by an excited magnetic particle are locked by $\mathbf{q}\cdot \mathbf{S}=0$ with a fixed chirality $\hat{\mathbf{n}}\cdot (\hat{\mathbf{S}}\times \hat{\mathbf{q}})=1$ when evanescent along $\hat{\mathbf{n}}\perp \mathbf{q}$. This field excites magnons in a nearby magnetic film in the form of directional beams that rotate with the magnetization direction. The exchange of these magnons between two distant nanomagnets leads to a highly tunable strong coupling and entangles their excited states.

We provide a systematic method for constructing effective dispersive Lindblad master equations to describe weakly anharmonic superconducting circuits coupled by a generic dissipationless nonreciprocal linear system, with effective coupling parameters and decay rates written in terms of the immittance parameters characterizing the coupler. This article extends the foundational work of Solgun et al. [IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn. 67, 928 (2019)] for linear reciprocal couplers described by an impedance response. Notably, we expand the existing toolbox to incorporate nonreciprocal elements, account for direct stray coupling between immittance ports, circumvent potential singularities, and include collective dissipative effects that arise from interactions with external common environments. We illustrate the use of our results with a circuit of weakly anharmonic Josephson junctions coupled to a multiport nonreciprocal environment and a dissipative port. The results obtained here can be used for the design of complex superconducting quantum processors with nontrivial routing of quantum information, as well as analog quantum simulators of condensed matter systems.

Hybrid quantum devices enable novel functionalities by combining the benefits of different subsystems. Particularly, point defects in nanomechanical resonators made of diamond or silicon carbide (SiC) have been proposed for precise magnetic field sensing and as versatile quantum transducers. However, the realization of a hybrid system may involve trade-offs in the performance of the constituent subsystems. In a spin-mechanical system, the mechanical properties of the resonator may suffer from the presence of engineered defects in the crystal lattice. This may severely restrict the performance of the resulting device and needs to be carefully explored. Here we focus on the impact of defects on high-$Q$ nanomechanical string resonators made of prestressed $3C$-SiC grown on Si(111). We use helium-ion implantation to create point defects and study their accumulated effect on the mechanical performance. Using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, we present a method to determine Young’s modulus and the prestress of the strings. We find that Young’s modulus is not modified by implantation. Under implantation doses relevant for single-defect or defect-ensemble generation, both tensile stress and damping rate also remain unaltered. For a higher implantation dose, both exhibit a characteristic change.

This paper presents a theoretical and experimental demonstration of a security analysis of a Trojan-horse attack (THA) on a real-world quantum key distribution (QKD) system. We show that the upper bound on the information leakage depends solely on the fidelity between the states of the adversary. We find the lower bound for fidelity between THA states in both the polarization- and phase-coding BB84 protocols, considering both pure and mixed states. Our bounds depend only on the mean photon number per pulse available to an adversary. We also present an experimental analysis of a QKD system, including optical time-domain reflectometry measurements with centimeter resolution and spectral transmittance measurements for optical defense elements ranging from 1100 to 1800 nm with a noise floor lower than $-100$ dB. Finally, by considering the optimal attack, we obtain the value of the mean photon number per pulse available to an adversary and calculate the key leakage that needs to be eliminated during the privacy amplification procedure.

Optimization problems are the core challenge in many fields of science and engineering, yet general and effective methods for finding optimal solutions remain scarce. Quantum computing has been envisioned to help solve such problems, with methods like quantum annealing (QA), grounded in adiabatic evolution, being extensively explored and successfully implemented on quantum simulators such as D-Wave’s annealers and some Rydberg arrays. In this work, we investigate the topological sector optimization (TSO) problem, which has attracted particular interest in the quantum simulation and many-body physics community. We reveal that the topology induced by frustration in the optimization model is an intrinsic obstruction for QA and other traditional methods to approach the ground state. We demonstrate that the difficulties of the TSO problem are not restricted to the gaplessness, but are also due to the topological nature, which was often ignored for the analysis of optimization problems before. To solve TSO problems, we utilize quantum imaginary-time evolution (QITE) with a possible realization on quantum computers, which leverages the property of quantum superposition to explore the full Hilbert space and can thus address optimization problems of topological nature. We report the performance of different quantum optimization algorithms on TSO problems and demonstrate that their capabilities to address optimization problems are distinct even when considering the quantum computational resources required for practical QITE implementations.

In quantum sensing of magnetic fields, ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond offer high sensitivity, high bandwidth and outstanding spatial resolution while operating in harsh environments. Moreover, the orientation of defect centers along four crystal axes forms an intrinsic coordinate system, enabling vector magnetometry within a single diamond crystal. While most vector magnetometers rely on a known bias magnetic field for full recovery of three-dimensional (3D) field information, employing external 3D Helmholtz coils or permanent magnets results in bulky, laboratory-bound setups, impeding miniaturization of the device. Here, a novel approach is presented that utilizes a fiber-integrated microscale coil at the fiber tip to generate a localized uniaxial magnetic field. The same fiber-tip coil is used in parallel for spin control by combining dc and microwave signals in a bias tee. To implement vector magnetometry using a uniaxial bias field, the orientation of the diamond crystal is preselected and then fully characterized by rotating a static magnetic field in three planes of rotation. The measurement of vector magnetic fields in the full solid angle is demonstrated with a shot-noise-limited sensitivity of $19.4{\text{nT/Hz}}^{1/2}$ and microscale spatial resolution while achieving a fiber sensor head cross section of less than $1{\text{mm}}^2$.

The ability to perform entangling operations in parallel with a low error is essential for a large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer. However, for trapped-ion systems, it is a challenging task due to the crosstalk resulting from the collective motional modes. Here, we develop a highly paralleled quantum circuit demonstrating a logical qubit based on the Steane code and study the impact of the crosstalk error on the performance of the fault-tolerant protocol. We show that the crosstalk indeed greatly destroys the fault-tolerant property of the quantum error correction. To achieve the break-even point with encoded qubits, we identify the suppression requirement of the crosstalk error to be less than ${10}^{-6}$ for the Steane code. Furthermore, to mitigate the crosstalk below the fault-tolerant threshold, we propose a highly efficient optimization scheme by utilizing the programmable optical tweezer array. Overall, we make an elegant combination of the pulse-control optimization of parallel gate operations with the fault-tolerant protocol on the error-protected universal quantum computer.

In the presence of physical noise of all platforms for quantum computation, quantum error correction (QEC) becomes a critical way to realize quantum algorithms with large quantum volumes. In order to understand the influence of quantum noise on QEC codes and further improve the performance of logical circuits, the noises should be accurately analyzed with proper models. Here we focus on the trapped-ion system. Fundamentally, we start from the laser pulses of the quantum gates in the circuits and extract the noise components from the complete evolution of the quantum states, beyond the standard depolarizing model and other simplified models. Our simulations indicate that the logical performance under real noises is significantly better than that predicted by previous models. Meanwhile, the advantage of QEC is shown in the levels of one, two, and more logical qubits. Moreover, we can increase the logical fidelity by the method of ion mapping, which is based on knowledge of the specific noise distribution of different ions. Some powerful evidence from the numerical results demonstrates the possibility to access fault-tolerant quantum computation with the trapped-ion system.