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Field-sensitive addressing and control of field-insensitive neutral-atom qubits

Nature Physics volume 5, pages 575–580 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

The establishment of a scalable scheme for quantum computing with addressable and long-lived qubits would provide a route to harnessing the laws of quantum physics to solve classically intractable problems. The design of many proposed platforms for quantum computing is driven by competing needs: isolating the quantum system from the environment to prevent decoherence, and easily and accurately controlling the system with external fields. For example, neutral-atom optical-lattice architectures provide environmental isolation through the use of states that are robust against fluctuating external fields, yet external fields are essential for qubit addressing. Here, we demonstrate the selection of individual qubits with external fields, while the qubits are in field-insensitive superpositions. We use a spatially inhomogeneous external field to map selected qubits to a different field-insensitive superposition, minimally perturbing unselected qubits, despite the fact that the addressing field is not spatially localized. We show robust single-qubit rotations on neutral-atom qubits located at selected lattice sites. This precise coherent control should be more generally applicable to state transfer and qubit isolation in other architectures using field-insensitive qubits.

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Figure 1: Scheme for combining field-sensitive qubit addressability with long-lived field-insensitive ‘clock state’ qubits.
Figure 2: Qubit coherence and qubit mapping.
Figure 3: Beff and the differential shift.
Figure 4: Site-selective coherent mapping and single-qubit rotation.
Figure 5: Exploration of composite-pulse techniques for trapped neutral atoms.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. D. Phillips for a critical reading, P. Jessen and I. Deutsch for helpful discussion and S. Swift and E. Huang for technical assistance with our direct-digital-synthesis hardware. This work was partially supported by DTO and ONR. N.L. acknowledges support from the National Research Council Research Associateship program.

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Author notes

  1. N. Lundblad

    Present address: Present address: Department of Physics, Bates College, 44 Campus Avenue, Lewiston, Maine 04240, USA,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Quantum Institute, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Maryland, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA

    N. Lundblad, J. M. Obrecht, I. B. Spielman & J. V. Porto

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  1. N. Lundblad
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  2. J. M. Obrecht
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  4. J. V. Porto
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Correspondence to N. Lundblad.

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Lundblad, N., Obrecht, J., Spielman, I. et al. Field-sensitive addressing and control of field-insensitive neutral-atom qubits. Nature Phys 5, 575–580 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1330

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