Detecting and tracking drift in quantum information processors

Abstract

If quantum information processors are to fulfill their potential, the diverse errors that affect them must be understood and suppressed. But errors typically fluctuate over time, and the most widely used tools for characterizing them assume static error modes and rates. This mismatch can cause unheralded failures, misidentified error modes, and wasted experimental effort. Here, we demonstrate a spectral analysis technique for resolving time dependence in quantum processors. Our method is fast, simple, and statistically sound. It can be applied to time-series data from any quantum processor experiment. We use data from simulations and trapped-ion qubit experiments to show how our method can resolve time dependence when applied to popular characterization protocols, including randomized benchmarking, gate set tomography, and Ramsey spectroscopy. In the experiments, we detect instability and localize its source, implement drift control techniques to compensate for this instability, and then demonstrate that the instability has been suppressed.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 26, 2020
Source ID
10.1038/s41467-020-19074-4

Entities

People

  • Daniel Lobser
  • Erik Nielsen
  • Kenneth Rudinger
  • Kevin Young
  • Melissa Revelle
  • Peter Maunz
  • Robin Blume-Kohout
  • Timothy Proctor

Organizations

  • Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity
  • Office of Science
  • Sandia National Laboratories

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Image Processing and Computer Vision.
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing