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Quantum error correction and universal gate set operation on a binomial bosonic logical qubit

Nature Physics volume 15, pages 503–508 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Logical qubit encoding and quantum error correction (QEC) protocols have been experimentally demonstrated in various physical systems with multiple physical qubits, generally without reaching the break-even point, at which the lifetime of the quantum information exceeds that of the single best physical qubit within the logical qubit. Logical operations are challenging, owing to the necessary non-local operations at the physical level, making bosonic logical qubits that rely on higher Fock states of a single oscillator attractive, given their hardware efficiency. QEC that reaches the break-even point and single logical-qubit operations have been demonstrated using the bosonic cat code. Here, we experimentally demonstrate repetitive QEC approaching the break-even point of a single logical qubit encoded in a hybrid system consisting of a superconducting circuit and a bosonic cavity using a binomial bosonic code. This is achieved while simultaneously maintaining full control of the single logical qubit, including encoding, decoding and a high-fidelity universal quantum gate set with 97% average process fidelity. The corrected logical qubit has a lifetime 2.8 times longer than that of its uncorrected counterpart. We also perform a Ramsey experiment on the corrected logical qubit, reporting coherence twice as long as for the uncorrected case.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the experiments on binomial quantum code.
Fig. 2: Protocol of the repetitive QEC and process tomography.
Fig. 3: QEC performance.
Fig. 4: Gate operations on the logical qubit and Ramsey interferometry on the QEC-protected logical qubit.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank N. Ofek and Y. Liu for suggestions on FPGA programming, and L. Jiang, L. Li and R. Schoelkopf for discussions. L.S. acknowledges support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China grant number 2017YFA0304303 and National Natural Science Foundation of China grant number 11474177. S.M.G. acknowledges grants from ARO W911NF1410011 and NSF DMR-1609326. L.S. also thanks R. Vijay and his group for help on the parametric amplifier measurements.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: L. Hu, Y. Ma.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Quantum Information, Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    L. Hu, Y. Ma, W. Cai, X. Mu, Y. Xu, W. Wang, H. Wang, Y. P. Song, L-M. Duan & L. Sun

  2. Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Y. Wu & L-M. Duan

  3. Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, CAS, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    C.-L. Zou

  4. Departments of Applied Physics and Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    S. M. Girvin

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Contributions

L.H. and L.S. developed the FPGA logic. L.H. and Y.M. performed the experiment and analysed the data with the assistance of W.C., X.M., Y.X. and W.W. L.S. directed the experiment. L.M.D., C.L.Z. and L.S. proposed the experiment. C.-L.Z., Y.W., S.M.G. and L.-M.D. provided theoretical support. W.C. fabricated the JPA. L.H. and X.M. fabricated the devices with the assistance of Y.X., H.W. and Y.P.S. C.-L.Z., S.M.G. and L.S. wrote the manuscript with feedback from all authors.

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Correspondence to C.-L. Zou or L. Sun.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Journal peer review information: Nature Physics thanks P. van Loock and the other anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Hu, L., Ma, Y., Cai, W. et al. Quantum error correction and universal gate set operation on a binomial bosonic logical qubit. Nat. Phys. 15, 503–508 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0414-3

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