Engineers advance toward a fault-tolerant quantum computer

In the future, quantum computers could rapidly simulate new materials or help scientists develop faster machine‐learning models, opening the door to many new possibilities.

But these applications will only be possible if quantum computers can perform operations extremely quickly, so scientists can make measurements and perform corrections before compounding error rates reduce their accuracy and reliability.

The efficiency of this measurement process, known as readout, relies on the strength of the coupling between photons, which are particles of light that carry quantum information, and artificial atoms, units of matter that are often used to store information in a quantum computer.

Now, MIT researchers have demonstrated what they believe is the strongest nonlinear light‐matter coupling ever achieved in a quantum system. Their experiment is a step toward realizing quantum operations and readout that could be performed in a few nanoseconds. The research appears in Nature Communications.

The researchers used a novel superconducting circuit architecture to show nonlinear light‐matter coupling that is about an order of magnitude stronger than prior demonstrations, which could enable a quantum processor to run about 10 times faster.

There is still much work to be done before the architecture could be used in a real quantum computer, but demonstrating the fundamental physics behind the process is a major step in the right direction, says Yufeng “Bright” Ye Ph.D., lead author of a paper on this research.

“This would really eliminate one of the bottlenecks in quantum computing. Usually, you have to measure the results of your computations in between rounds of error correction. This could accelerate how quickly we can reach the fault‐tolerant quantum computing stage and be able to get real‐world applications and value out of our quantum computers,” says Ye.

He is joined on the paper by senior author Kevin O’Brien, an associate professor and principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT who leads the Quantum Coherent Electronics Group in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), as well as others at MIT, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and Harvard University.

A new coupler

This physical demonstration builds on years of theoretical research in the O’Brien group.

After Ye joined the lab as a Ph.D. student in 2019, he began developing a specialized photon detector to enhance quantum information processing.

Through that work, he invented a new type of quantum coupler, which is a device that facilitates interactions between qubits. Qubits are the building blocks of a quantum computer. This so‐called quarton coupler had so many potential applications in quantum operations and readout that it quickly became a focus of the lab.

This quarton coupler is a special type of superconducting circuit that has the potential to generate extremely strong nonlinear coupling, which is essential for running most quantum algorithms. As the researchers feed more current into the coupler, it creates an even stronger nonlinear interaction. In this sense, nonlinearity means a system behaves in a way that is greater than the sum of its parts, exhibiting more complex properties.

“Most of the useful interactions in quantum computing come from nonlinear coupling of light and matter. If you can get a more versatile range of different types of coupling, and increase the coupling strength, then you can essentially increase the processing speed of the quantum computer,” Ye explains.

For quantum readout, researchers shine microwave light onto a qubit and then, depending on whether that qubit is in state 0 or 1, there is a frequency shift on its associated readout resonator. They measure this shift to determine the qubit’s state.

Nonlinear light‐matter coupling between the qubit and resonator enables this measurement process.

The MIT researchers designed an architecture with a quarton coupler connected to two superconducting qubits on a chip. They turn one qubit into a resonator and use the other qubit as an artificial atom which stores quantum information. This information is transferred in the form of microwave light particles called photons.

“The interaction between these superconducting artificial atoms and the microwave light that routes the signal is basically how an entire superconducting quantum computer is built,” Ye explains.

Enabling faster readout

The quarton coupler creates nonlinear light‐matter coupling between the qubit and resonator that’s about an order of magnitude stronger than researchers had achieved before. This could enable a quantum system with lightning‐fast readout.

“This work is not the end of the story. This is the fundamental physics demonstration, but there is work going on in the group now to realize really fast readout,” O’Brien says.

That would involve adding additional electronic components, such as filters, to produce a readout circuit that could be incorporated into a larger quantum system.

The researchers also demonstrated extremely strong matter‐matter coupling, another type of qubit interaction that is important for quantum operations. This is another area they plan to explore with future work.

Fast operations and readout are especially important for quantum computers because qubits have finite lifespans, a concept known as coherence time.

Stronger nonlinear coupling enables a quantum processor to run faster and with lower error, so the qubits can perform more operations in the same amount of time. This means the qubits can run more rounds of error correction during their lifespans.

“The more runs of error correction you can get in, the lower the error will be in the results,” Ye says.

In the long run, this work could help scientists build a fault‐tolerant quantum computer, which is essential for practical, large‐scale quantum computation.

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.