Trapped ions are a promising tool for building a large-scale quantum computer. However, the number of required radiation fields for the realization of quantum gates in any proposed ion-based architecture scales with the number of ions within the quantum computer, posing a major obstacle when imagining a device with millions of ions. Here, we present a fundamentally different approach for trapped-ion quantum computing where this detrimental scaling vanishes. The method is based on individually controlled voltages applied to each logic gate location to facilitate the actual gate operation analogous to a traditional transistor architecture within a classical computer processor. To demonstrate the key principle of this approach we implement a versatile quantum gate method based on long-wavelength radiation and use this method to generate a maximally entangled state of two quantum engineered clock qubits with fidelity 0.985(12). This quantum gate also constitutes a simple-to-implement tool for quantum metrology, sensing, and simulation.
Funding
UK Quantum Technology Hub for Sensors and Metrology; G1511; EPSRC-ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL; EP/M013294/1
US Army; W911NF-12-2-0072
Quantum technology with nanofabricated ion trap chips; G0308; EPSRC-ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL; EP/G007276/1
Integrated Quantum Information Technology; G0650; EUROPEAN UNION; GA 270843
UK Quantum Technology Hub: NQIT-Networked Quantum Information Technologies; G1503; EPSRC-ENGINEERING & PHYSICAL SCIENCES RESEARCH COUNCIL; EP/M013243/1