Probing Qubit Memory Errors at the Part-per-Million Level
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Robust qubit memory is essential for quantum computing, both for near-term devices operating without error correction, and for the long-term goal of a fault-tolerant processor. We directly measure the memory error ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{m}$ for a $^{43}{\mathrm{Ca}}^{+}$ trapped-ion qubit in the small-error regime and find ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{m}<{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$ for storage times $t\ensuremath{\lesssim}50\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{ms}$. This exceeds gate or measurement times by three orders of magnitude. Using randomized benchmarking, at $t=1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{ms}$ we measure ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{m}=1.2(7)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$, around ten times smaller than that extrapolated from the ${T}_{2}^{*}$ time, and limited by instability of the atomic clock reference used to benchmark the qubit.
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The expected scaling of memory error with delay time varies depending on the timescale of the noise sources.
“The expected scaling of memory error with delay time varies depending on the timescale of the noise sources97.”
From A 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer with all-to-all connectivity (2026) · cites this paper as [97]
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- Authors
- Sepiol, M. A., Hughes, A. C., Tarlton, J. E., Nadlinger, D. P., Ballance, T. G., Ballance, C. J., Harty, T. P., Steane, A. M., Goodwin, J. F., & Lucas, D. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2019-09-13
- Volume
- 123
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 110503-110503
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W2945068789
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3
- FWCI
- 1.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Imperial College London
- Army Research Office (W911NF-14-1-0217)
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Quantum Information and Cryptography
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Quantum Mechanics and Applications
- Keywords
- trapped-ion qubits, randomized benchmarking, T2 relaxation, quantum memory, fault-tolerant quantum computing
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