Progress Toward Using ¹³⁷Ba+ Qubits in a Quantinuum Quantum Computer

Quantinuum’s commercially available 32-qubit quantum computer uses trapped ytterbium-171 ions to realize a high-fidelity system [1]. However, the use of ytterbium poses practical scaling challenges as gate operations require high-power ultraviolet laser light and high measurement fidelities are difficult to achieve. Here we will describe our efforts in overcoming these challenges by moving to qubits based on barium-137 ions. We will present initial demonstrations of using such qubits in our racetrack-shaped trap, as well as provide an outlook on how this qubit choice impacts our next-generation systems.

[1] S. A. Moses, et al., “A Race Track Trapped-Ion Quantum Processor”, arXiv:2305.03828 (2023).