Simon C. Benjamin

We present the Virtual Quantum Device (VQD) platform, a system based on the QuEST quantum emulator. Through the use of VQDs, non-expert users can emulate specific quantum computers with detailed error models, bespoke gate sets and connectivities. The platform boasts an intuitive interface, powerful visualisation, and compatibility with high-performance computation for effective testing and optimisation of complex quantum algorithms or ideas across a range of quantum computing hardware. We create and explore five families of VQDs corresponding to trapped ions, nitrogen-vacancy-centres, neutral atom arrays, silicon quantum dot spins, and superconducting devices. Each is highly configurable through a set of tailored parameters. We showcase the key characteristics of each virtual device, providing practical examples of the tool's usefulness and highlighting each device's specific attributes. By offering user-friendly encapsulated descriptions of diverse quantum hardware, the VQD platform offers researchers the ability to rapidly explore algorithms and protocols in a realistic setting; meanwhile hardware experts can create their own VQDs to compare with their experiments.

In principle a 1D array of nearest-neighbour linked qubits is compatible with fault tolerant quantum computing. However such a restricted topology necessitates a large overhead for shuffling qubits and consequently the fault tolerance threshold is far lower than in 2D architectures. Here we identify a middle ground: a 1D segmented chain which is a linear array of segments, each of which is a well-connected zone with all-to-all connectivity. The architecture is relevant to both ion trap and solid-state systems. We establish that fault tolerance can be achieved either by a surface code alone, or via an additional concatenated four-qubit gauge code. We find that the fault tolerance threshold is 0.12% for 15-qubit segments, while larger segments are superior. For 35 or more qubits per segment one can achieve computation on a meaningful scale with today's state-of-the-art fidelities without the use of the upper concatenation layer, thus minimising the overall device size.

Optically linked ion traps are promising as components of network-based quantum technologies, including communication systems and modular computers. Experimental results achieved to date indicate that the fidelity of operations within each ion trap module will be far higher than the fidelity of operations involving the links; fortunately internal storage and processing can effectively upgrade the links through the process of purification. Here we perform the most detailed analysis to date on this purification task, using a protocol which is balanced to maximise fidelity while minimising the device complexity and the time cost of the process. Moreover we 'compile down' the quantum circuit to device-level operations including cooling and shutting events. We find that a linear trap with only five ions (two of one species, three of another) can support our protocol while incorporating desirable features such as 'global control', i.e. laser control pulses need only target an entire zone rather than differentiating one ion from its neighbour. To evaluate the capabilities of such a module we consider its use both as a universal communications node for quantum key distribution, and as the basic repeating unit of a quantum computer. For the latter case we evaluate the threshold for fault tolerant quantum computing using the surface code, finding acceptable fidelities for the 'raw' entangling link as low as 83% (or under 75% if an additional ion is available).

Exquisite quantum control has now been achieved in small ion traps, in nitrogen-vacancy centres and in superconducting qubit clusters. We can regard such a system as a universal cell with diverse technological uses from communication to large-scale computing, provided that the cell is able to network with others and overcome any noise in the interlinks. Here we show that loss-tolerant entanglement purification makes quantum computing feasible with the noisy and lossy links that are realistic today: With a modestly complex cell design, and using a surface code protocol with a network noise threshold of 13.3%, we find that interlinks which attempt entanglement at a rate of 2MHz but suffer 98% photon loss can result in kilohertz computer clock speeds (i.e. rate of high fidelity stabilizer measurements). Improved links would dramatically increase the clock speed. Our simulations employed local gates of a fidelity already achieved in ion trap devices.

In the distributed quantum computing paradigm, well-controlled few-qubit `nodes' are networked together by connections which are relatively noisy and failure prone. A practical scheme must offer high tolerance to errors while requiring only simple (i.e. few-qubit) nodes. Here we show that relatively modest, three-qubit nodes can support advanced purification techniques and so offer robust scalability: the infidelity in the entanglement channel may be permitted to approach 10% if the infidelity in local operations is of order 0.1%. Our tolerance of network noise is therefore a order of magnitude beyond prior schemes, and our architecture remains robust even in the presence of considerable decoherence rates (memory errors). We compare the performance with that of schemes involving nodes of lower and higher complexity. Ion traps, and NV- centres in diamond, are two highly relevant emerging technologies.