Abstract:
Trapped atomic ions in ultra-high vacuum possess highly coherent controllable quantum degrees of freedom, making them useful as frequency standards, quantum-enhanced sensors, and building blocks of quantum computers and networks. Numerous efforts to build commercial quantum computers based on trapped ions are now underway worldwide. However, some technologies and architectures currently used in such systems may no longer be viable at the scale of thousands of trapped ion qubits. I will give some background on trapped ion quantum computing, and describe efforts in our research group to develop and demonstrate new scalable methods and architectures for high-performance control and readout of trapped ion qubits. A key element is the use of microfabricated planar ion trap chips where structures to enable qubit control and readout are fabricated into the trap chip itself.