Description:

Abstract: Trapped atomic ions are a leading physical platform for quantum computers, featuring qubits with essentially infinite idle coherence times. Such atomic clock qubits are controlled with laser beams, allowing densely-connected and reconfigurable universal gate sets. The path to scale involves concrete architectural paths, from shuttling ions between QPU cores to modular photonic interconnects between multiple QPUs.  Full-stack ion trap quantum computers have thus moved away from the physics of qubits and gates and toward the engineering of optical control signals, quantum gate compilation for algorithms, and software-defined error correction. I will summarize the state-of-the-art in these quantum computers in both academic and industrial settings, and speculate on how they might be used for science and beyond.

Speaker: Christopher R Monroe, Gilhuly Family Presidential Distinguished Professor, Duke University

Hosts: Timothy Kovachy, Brian Odom

Speaker Biography: Christopher Monroe is the Gilhuly Family Presidential Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics, and Director of the Duke Quantum Center at Duke University. Monroe is an atomic and quantum physicist and engineer, with interests in fundamental quantum phenomena, quantum information science, and quantum computer design and fabrication. Monroe’s research group pioneered most aspects of ion trap quantum computers, making the first steps toward a scalable, reconfigurable, and modular quantum computer system. Monroe is also co-founder and Chief Scientist at IonQ, a public company inside the Washington Beltway that builds quantum computers based on trapped atomic ions. Monroe is a chief architect of the 2018 U.S. National Quantum Initiative and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.