Description
Motional modes of trapped ions have been shown to be a useful tool for quantum sensing as well as a potential platform for performing continuous variable quantum computing (CVQC) [1,2]. Both applications require the ability to prepare well-defined motional states with high fidelity. These states can be generated without the use of laser fields which could reduce the experimental overhead in future systems. We report our progress towards generation of single and two-mode squeezed states as well as beam splitters [3] by means of parametric excitation. Additionally, we can apply displacements and phase shift operations. These operations comprise part of the tool box to create motional state interferometers such as the Mach-Zender or SU(1,1) interferometers and can be used to achieve Heisenberg limited phase sensitivities. In order to characterize these motional states, measurements require coupling the motion to the ions’ internal “spin” states followed by detection of spin-dependent fluorescence. Photon scattering, giving rise to fluorescence, causes the ion to recoil, which generally decoheres the ions’ motional modes. This decoherence prevents mid-algorithm measurements, which are necessary for processes that require classical feedback. To address this issue, we also describe progress towards the use of ‘protected’ [3] modes within chains consisting of an odd number of ions, where the center ion has zero displacement (3(N-1)/2 protected modes with N ions). The protection offered by these ions can be measured by analysis of the heating rates and coherence time of the protected mode during scattering events. *This research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office through grant W911NF-19-1-0481 as well as support from NSF through the Q-SEnSE Quantum Leap Challenge Institute, Award # 2016244.
[1] S. Lloyd and S. L. Braunstein, Quantum Computation over Continuous Variables, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1784 (1999)
[2] S. C. Burd, R. Srinivas, J. J. Bollinger1, A. C. Wilson1, D. J. Wineland,D. Leibfried, D. H. Slichter, D. T. C. Allcock, Quantum Amplification of Mechanical Oscillator Motion, Science 364, 6446 (2019)
[3] Pan-Yu Hou et al. Coherently coupled mechanical oscillators in the quantum regime, arXiv:2205.14841v1 (2022)
| Presenter name | Jeremy Metzner |
|---|---|
| How will you attend ICAP-27? | I am planning on in-person attendance |
