Paul Hilaire

How much energy does a quantum computer consume? Are they more efficient than their classical counterparts? In this work, we make a step towards answering these questions. We define the energy efficiency of a quantum computer as the ratio of the number of algorithms it can perform during a given time over the energy consumed by the hardware during this time. We analyze the most representative physical platforms currently envisioned to be used as building blocks of quantum computers: superconducting qubits, silicon spin qubits, trapped ions, neutral atoms and photonic qubits. Including insights from experts in all these technologies and taking into account algorithm compilation constraints, we discuss the advantages and inconveniences of each platform from an energy standpoint. Beyond providing concrete values of the energy consumption of current quantum computers, we lay the foundation of a framework to benchmark the energy efficiency of any future quantum computing architecture.

Three-level Lambda systems appear in various quantum information processing platforms. In several control schemes, the excited level serves as an auxiliary state for implementing gate operations between the lower qubit states. However, extra excited levels give rise to unwanted transitions that cause leakage and other errors, degrading the gate fidelity. We focus on a coherent-population-trapping scheme for gates and design protocols that reduce the effects of the unwanted off-resonant couplings and improve the gate performance up to several orders of magnitude. For a particular setup of unwanted couplings, we find an exact solution, which leads to error-free gate operations via only a static detuning modification. In the general case, we improve gate operations by adding corrective modulations to the pulses, thereby generalizing the DRAG protocol to Lambda systems. Our techniques enable fast and high-fidelity gates and apply to a wide range of optically driven platforms, such as quantum dots, color centers, and trapped ions.