Current Progress and Remaining Challenges in Scaling Trapped-ion Quantum Computing Workshop

ABSTRACT

BIO

Dr. Brian Sawyer is a Principal Research Scientist and the Chief Engineer of the Quantum Systems Division at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. His current research interests include development of novel compact Penning ion traps for quantum information and portable atomic clock applications. Dr. Sawyer received his PhD in the group of Dr. Jun Ye at JILA/University of Colorado in 2010. He subsequently worked in the group of Dr. David Wineland at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a postdoctoral fellow.

ABSTRACT

Trapped ions held in chip-based electrode structures and manipulated using optical fields are a promising candidate system for quantum computing, sensing, and networking.  Novel methodologies of control integration provide improved prospects for scaling practical systems by allowing extensibility while maintaining robustness.  We present work in developing trap-integrated optics and single-photon detectors, as well as hybrid integration techniques, which together constitute a platform with promise to allow useful trapped-ion quantum computing.

BIO

David Reens is a Technical Staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he has designed and operated trapped ion quantum systems based on strontium ions for the past five years. David’s research emphasizes miniaturization, portability, and surface electric field noise. David received his PhD from JILA, University of Colorado / NIST, where he studied dilute gases of neutral hydroxyl radicals under the direction of Professor Jun Ye.

BIO

BIO

Prof Winfried Hensinger is a Professor of Quantum Technologies at the University of Sussex. He heads the Sussex Ion Quantum Technology Group and he is the director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies. Hensinger’s group is working on developing practical trapped-ion quantum computers. In 2016, Hensinger and his group invented a new approach to quantum computing with trapped ions where voltages applied to a quantum computer microchip are used to execute calculations instead of laser beams as in previous approaches. In 2017, leading an international consortium, he announced the first industrial blueprint for building a practical quantum computer with millions of qubits (https://bit.ly/3tCug5O) giving rise to the assertion that is now possible to construct a utility scale quantum computer making use of microwave technology. He is a co-founder of Universal Quantum, a full stack quantum computing company, where he serves as Chief Scientist and Chairman. Hensinger is also an honorary professor at the University of Bristol and he serves on EPSRS’s Physical Sciences Strategic Advisory Team.

ABSTRACT

Quantum processors using linear arrays of trapped ions demonstrate excellent performance on quantum computing benchmarks, but scaling to more qubits will require two-dimensional ion arrays as originally envisioned in the QCCD architecture. Here I will present a technique, recently developed by Quantinuum, for controlling the motion and sorting of multi-species ion crystals in a grid-based surface-electrode trap.  By co-wiring control electrodes and using a binary input to exchange voltages at specific sites, site-dependent operations are achieved with a fixed number of analog signals and a single digital input per site—vastly reducing the resources required for wiring up large scale quantum processors in the QCCD architecture.  Recent experimental results and implications for Quantinuum’s roadmap will be discussed.    

BIO

Rob Delaney is an Advanced Physicist at Quantinuum, where he works on experimental optimization of ion transport in the QCCD architecture.  He joined Quantinuum after receiving his PhD in Physics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2022, where his research focused on integrating superconducting qubits with electro-optomechanical transducers to demonstrate novel qubit measurement techniques.  Prior to this, he received his MSc in Physics from the University of British Columbia in 2016.  Throughout both his PhD and work at Quantinuum, his research has broadly focused on improving techniques for classical control and readout in quantum processors. 

ABSTRACT

One of the main challenges to scaling trapped ion quantum computers is optical access to ion qubits. While 2D chip traps provide ion motor control and complex layout possibilities, the designs are currently limited by the need for high numerical aperture for qubit addressing with laser beams. There has been recent success routing light via trap-integrated waveguides, however in order to take full advantage of PIC technology we should also integrate active control of the light. With on chip switches and modulators, light can be routed between computing zones and controlled on chip. This advance has the potential to reduce optical power requirements and allow for denser qubit layouts. In this talk, I will highlight our efforts to integrate Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) modulators into a trapped ion device.

BIO

Dr. Crystal Noel is an Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics at Duke University, where she is part of the Duke Quantum Center. Crystal received her BS from MIT in 2013, and then moved to UC Berkeley for her graduate studies with Professor Hartmut Haeffner. After completing her PhD in trapped ion quantum computation in 2019, she worked with Christopher Monroe at University of Maryland as a postdoc. Dr. Noel started at Duke in 2021 as a Research Scientist before joining the faculty in 2022. Her research spans the field of trapped ions from device engineering and photonics integration to quantum computing systems engineering to high-level algorithms and applications.