Tunable spin-spin interactions and entanglement of ions in separate wells

Abstract

Quantum simulation - the use of one quantum system to simulate a less controllable one - may provide an understanding of the many quantum systems which cannot be modeled using classical computers. Impressive progress on control and manipulation has been achieved for various quantum systems, but one of the remaining challenges is the implementation of scalable devices. In this regard, individual ions trapped in separate tunable potential wells are promising. Here we implement the basic features of this approach and demonstrate deterministic tuning of the Coulomb interaction between two ions, independently controlling their local wells. The scheme is suitable for emulating a range of spin-spin interactions, but to characterize the performance of our setup we select one that entangles the internal states of the two ions with 0.82(1) fidelity. Extension of this building-block to a 2D-network, which ion-trap micro-fabrication processes enable, may provide a new quantum simulator architecture with broad flexibility in designing and scaling the arrangement of ions and their mutual interactions. To perform useful quantum simulations, including those of intriguing condensed-matter phenomena such as the fractional quantum Hall effect, an array of tens of ions might be sufficient.

To appear in Nature

References in corpus (5)

• Quantum Computing
• A microfabricated surface-electrode ion trap for scalable quantum information processing
• Optimal Surface-Electrode Trap Lattices for Quantum Simulation with Trapped Ions
• Laserless trapped-ion quantum simulations without spontaneous scattering using microtrap arrays
• Topological Phenomena in Trapped Ion Systems

Cited by in corpus (4)

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• Precision measurement of branching fractions of ${}^{138}$Ba${}^{+}$: Testing many body theories below one percent level
• Collective Modes in the Cooperative Jahn-Teller Model: Path Integral Approach