Dissertation Committee Chair: Prof. Christopher Monroe
Committee:
Prof. Christopher Jarzynski, Dean’s Representative
Prof. Gretchen Campbell
Prof. James Williams
Prof. Norbert Linke
Abstract:
Quantum computing promises solutions to some of the world's most important problems that classical computers have failed to address. The trapped-ion-based quantum computing platform has a lot of advantages for doing so: ions are perfectly identical and near-perfectly isolated, feature long coherent times, and allow high-fidelity individual laser-controlled operations. One of the greatest remaining obstacles in trapped-ion-based quantum computing is the issue of scalability. The approach that we take to address this issue is a modular architecture: separate ion traps, each with a manageable number of ions, are interconnected via photonic links. To avoid photon-generated crosstalk between qubits and utilize advantages of different kinds of ions for each role, we use two distinct species -- 171Yb+ as memory qubits and 138Ba+ as communication qubits. The qubits based on 171Yb+ are defined within the hyperfine “clock” states characterized by a very long coherence time while 138Ba+ ions feature visible-range wavelength emission lines. Current optical and fiber technologies are more efficient in this range than at shorter wavelengths.
We present a theoretical description and experimental demonstration of the key elements of a quantum network based on the mixed-species paradigm. The first one is entanglement between an atomic qubit and the polarization degree of freedom of a pure single photon. To verify the purity of single photons, we measure the second-order correlation function and find g(2)(0)=(8.1±2.3)×10-5without background subtraction, which is consistent with the lowest reported value in any system. Next, we show mixed-species entangling gates with two ions using the Mølmer-Sørensen and Cirac-Zoller protocols. Finally, we theoretically generalize mixed-species entangling gates to long ion chains and characterize the roles of normal modes there. In addition, we explore sympathetic cooling efficiency in such mixed-species crystals. Besides these developments, we demonstrate new techniques for manipulating states within the D3/2-manifold of zero-nuclear-spin ions -- a part of a protected qubit scheme promising seconds-long coherence times proposed by Aharon et al. in 2013.