Scaling up Quantum Computing with Ion Chains

To perform useful quantum computation, we need to manipulate many qubits while protecting our system from errors. I will present our recent results on fault-tolerant preparation, measurement, rotation, and stabilizer measurement using a Bacon-Shor error-correcting code with 13 trapped ion qubits [1]. Comparing fault-tolerant protocols to non-fault tolerant protocols, we see significant reductions in the error rates of the logical primitives in the presence of noise. I will discuss a variant of the Shor code that is robust to idling errors caused by laser noise and magnetic field fluctuations and present measurements that show a factor of 4 improvement of the coherence time of the logical memory [2]. I will conclude with a discussion of the noise sources in our platform, and their effect on the scaling of ion systems [3].