Researchers “Hide” Ions to Reduce Quantum Errors

November 29, 2021

A new technique developed by Honeywell researchers reduced the amount of measured “crosstalk” errors by an order of magnitude.

Cambridge Researchers at Honeywell Quantum Solutions have turned problematic micromotion that jostles trapped ion qubits out of position into a plus.

The team recently demonstrated a technique that uses micromotion to shield nearby ions from stray photons released during mid-circuit measurement, a procedure in which lasers are used to check the quantum state of certain qubits and then reset them.  

Mid-circuit measurement is a key capability in today’s early-stage quantum computers. Because the qubit’s state can be checked and then re-used, researchers can run more complex algorithms – such as the holoQUADS algorithm - with fewer qubits.

By “hiding” ions behind micromotion, Honeywell researchers significantly reduced the amount of “crosstalk” – errors caused by photons hitting neighboring qubits – that occurred when measuring qubits during an operation. (Details are available in a pre-print publication available on the arXiv.)

“We were able to reduce crosstalk by an order of magnitude,” said Dr. John Gaebler, Chief Scientist of Commercial Products at Honeywell Quantum Solutions, and lead author of the paper. “It is a significant reduction in crosstalk errors. Much more so than other methods we’ve used.”

The new technique represents another step toward reducing errors that occur in today’s trapped-ion quantum computers, which is necessary if the technology is to solve problems too complex for classical systems.

“For quantum computers to scale, we need to reduce errors throughout the system,” said Tony Uttley, President of Honeywell Quantum Solutions. “The new technique the Honeywell team developed will help us get there.”

Eliminating errors

Today’s quantum computing technologies are still in the early stage and are prone to “noise” - or interference - caused by qubits interacting with their environment and one another.

This noise causes errors to accumulate, corrupts information stored in and between physical qubits, and disrupts the quantum state in which qubits must exist to run calculations. (Scientists call this decoherence.)

Researchers are trying to eliminate or suppress as many of these errors as possible while also creating logical qubits, a collection of entangled physical qubits on which quantum information is distributed, stored, and protected.  

By creating logical qubits, scientists can apply mathematical codes to detect and correct errors and eliminate noise as calculations are running. This multi-step process is known as quantum error correction (QEC).  Honeywell researchers recently demonstrated they can detect and correct errors in real-time by applying multiple rounds of full cycles of quantum error correction.

Logical qubits and QEC are important elements to improving the accuracy and precision of quantum computers.  But, Gaebler said, those methods are not enough on their own.

“Everything has to be working at a certain level before QEC can take you the rest of the way,” he said. “The more we can suppress or eliminate errors in the overall system, the more effective QEC will be and the fewer qubits we need to run complex calculations.”

Cutting out crosstalk

In classical computing, bit flip errors occur when a binary digit, or bit, inadvertently switches from a zero to one or vice versa.  Quantum computers experience a similar bit flip error as well as phase flip errors. Both errors cause qubits to lose their quantum state – or to decohere. In trapped ion quantum computing, one source of errors comes from the lasers used to implement gate operations and qubit measurements.

Though these lasers are highly controlled, unruly photons (small packets of light) still escape and bounce into neighboring ions causing “crosstalk” and decoherence.

Researchers use a variety of methods to protect these ions from crosstalk, especially during mid-circuit measurement where only a single qubit or a small subset of qubits is meant to be measured. With its quantum charged-coupled device (QCCD) architecture, the Honeywell team takes the approach of moving neighboring ions away from the qubit being fluoresced by a laser. But there is limited space along the device, which becomes even more compact as more qubits are added.

“Even when we move them more than 100 microns away, we still get more crosstalk than we prefer,” said Dr. Charlie Baldwin, a senior advanced physicist and co-author of the paper. “There is still some scattered light from the detection laser.”

The team hit on hiding neighboring ions from stray photons using micromotion potentials, which are caused by the oscillating electric fields used to “trap” these charged atoms. Micromotion is typically thought of as a nuisance with ion trapping, causing the ions to rapidly oscillate back and forth, and occurs when the ions are pushed out of the center of the trap by additional electric fields.

“Usually, we are trying to eliminate micromotion but in this case, we were able to use it to our benefit,” said Dr. Patty Lee, chief scientist at Honeywell Quantum Solutions.

The team’s goal is to reduce by 10 million the probability of a neighboring ion absorbing photons at 110 microns away.  By moving neighboring ions and hiding them behind micromotion the Honeywell team is approaching that mark.

How and why the technique works

In their paper, Honeywell researchers delved into how and why hiding ions with micromotion works, including the ideal frequency of the oscillations. They also identified and characterized errors.  (The basic physics behind the concept of hiding ions was first explored by the ion storage group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.)

“Mid-circuit operations are a new feature in commercial quantum computing hardware, so we had to invent a new way to validate that the micromotion hiding technique was achieving the low level of crosstalk errors that we predicted,” said Dr. Charlie Baldwin.

Though the new method resulted in a significant reduction of crosstalk errors, the Honeywell team acknowledged there is further to go.

“Crosstalk is one of those scary errors for scaling,” Gaebler said. “It has to be controlled because it becomes more of a problem as you scale and add qubits. This is another tool that will help us scale and help us compact our systems and pack in as many qubits as we can.”

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Kaniah Konkoly-Thege

Kaniah is Chief Legal Counsel and SVP of Government Relations for Quantinuum. In her previous role, she served as General Counsel, Honeywell Quantum Solutions. Prior to Honeywell, she was General Counsel, Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, LLC, and Senior Attorney, U.S. Department of Energy. She was Lead Counsel before the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Kaniah holds a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law and B.A., International Relations and Spanish from the College of William and Mary.

Jeff Miller

Jeff Miller is Chief Information Officer for Quantinuum. In his previous role, he served as CIO for Honeywell Quantum Solutions and led a cross-functional team responsible for Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Physical Security. For Honeywell, Jeff has held numerous management and executive roles in Information Technology, Security, Integrated Supply Chain and Program Management. Jeff holds a B.S., Computer Science, University of Arizona. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, attaining the rank of Commander.

Matthew Bohne

Matthew Bohne is the Vice President & Chief Product Security Officer for Honeywell Corporation. He is a passionate cybersecurity leader and executive with a proven track record of building and leading cybersecurity organizations securing energy, industrial, buildings, nuclear, pharmaceutical, and consumer sectors. He is a sought-after expert with deep experience in DevSecOps, critical infrastructure, software engineering, secure SDLC, supply chain security, privacy, and risk management.

Todd Moore

Todd Moore is the Global Vice President of Data Encryption Products at Thales. He is responsible for setting the business line and go to market strategies for an industry leading cybersecurity business. He routinely helps enterprises build solutions for a wide range of complex data security problems and use cases. Todd holds several management and technical degrees from the University of Virginia, Rochester Institute of Technology, Cornell University and Ithaca College. He is active in his community, loves to travel and spends much of his free time supporting his family in pursuing their various passions.

John Davis

Retired U.S. Army Major General John Davis is the Vice President, Public Sector for Palo Alto Networks, where he is responsible for expanding cybersecurity initiatives and global policy for the international public sector and assisting governments around the world to prevent successful cyber breaches. Prior to joining Palo Alto Networks, John served as the Senior Military Advisor for Cyber to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and served as the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy.  Prior to this assignment, he served in multiple leadership positions in special operations, cyber, and information operations.