Brisk Rydberg Ions for Scalable Quantum Processors

Introduction

The goal of BRISQ is to realize a prototype of a fully scalable quantum computer which has the capability to run quantum algorithms with a circuit depth exceeding one million. Achieving this goal will deliver a breakthrough in quantum information processing and simulation.

Impact on Industry

This will directly impact current efforts of the industrial sector which seek to employ quantum technology for computational tasks, such as:

• The design of materials and drugs
• Various optimization problems

These tasks are also limited by possible computational depth.

Technological Approach

Our technological approach exploits the interaction of trapped ions excited to electronically high-lying Rydberg states. The distinctive advantage of this platform is that it offers:

1. Coherence times in the range of up to a minute
2. Fast entangling gate speeds on the order of 100 ns

These two factors are key for achieving an unprecedented circuit depth and thus computational complexity.

Research Landscape

Research on Rydberg-ion devices is performed solely in two European research labs, and the first nanosecond-timescale entangling gate based on this approach has been achieved by one of the members of the BRISQ consortium. This brings the consortium into a unique position and gives Europe a decisive lead for advancing the development of this new platform towards maturity.

Consortium Structure

To facilitate this effort, the BRISQ project assembles a research consortium that consists of:

• Two experimental academic research groups
• Two theoretical academic research groups
• The SME HQS
• The industrial partner Infineon Technologies

This combination of expertise permits us to advance our ambitious project on a broad front, ranging from industrial-grade hardware to user-driven quantum algorithms and compiler software, which can directly feed into the simulation of physical models and potentially quantum chemistry.