High-fidelity trapped-ion quantum logic using near-field microwaves

Abstract

We demonstrate a two-qubit logic gate driven by near-field microwaves in a room-temperature microfabricated ion trap. We measure a gate fidelity of 99.7(1)\%, which is above the minimum threshold required for fault-tolerant quantum computing. The gate is applied directly to ${}^{43}$Ca${}^{+}$ "atomic clock" qubits (coherence time $T_2^{\ast }\approx 50\mathrm{s}$) using the microwave magnetic field gradient produced by a trap electrode. We introduce a dynamically-decoupled gate method, which stabilizes the qubits against fluctuating a.c.\ Zeeman shifts and avoids the need to null the microwave field.