Stability and control enable quantum operations that preserve information, reduce information processing time, and improve energy efficiency. The researchers compared their ongoing projects, begun in 2016, to building blocks that will link together to make large-scale quantum computing possible.
“There are steps you have to take before you take the next, more complicated step,” Peters said. “Our previous projects focused on developing fundamental capabilities and enable us to now work in the fully quantum domain with fully quantum input states.”
Lukens said the team’s results show that “we can control qubits’ quantum states, change their correlations, and modify them using standard telecommunications technology in ways that are applicable to advancing quantum computing.”
Once the building blocks of quantum computers are all in place, he added, “we can start connecting quantum devices to build the quantum internet, which is the next, exciting step.”
Much the way that information is processed differently from supercomputer to supercomputer, reflecting different developers and workflow priorities, quantum devices will function using different frequencies. This will make it challenging to connect them so they can work together the way today’s computers interact on the internet.
This work is an extension of the team’s previous demonstrations of quantum information processing capabilities on standard telecommunications technology. Furthermore, they said, leveraging existing fiber-optic network infrastructure for quantum computing is practical: billions of dollars have been invested, and quantum information processing represents a novel use.
The researchers said this “full circle” aspect of their work is highly satisfying. “We started our research together wanting to explore the use of standard telecommunications technology for quantum information processing, and we have found out that we can go back to the classical domain and improve it,” Lukens said.
Lukens, Williams, Peters, and Lougovski collaborated with Purdue University graduate student Hsuan-Hao Lu and his advisor Andrew Weiner. The research is supported by ORNL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.
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