Fast Ion Gates without the Lamb–Dicke Approximation by Robust Quantum Optimal Control

Abstract We present a robust quantum optimal control framework for implementing fast entangling gates on ion-trap quantum processors. The framework leverages tailored laser pulses to drive the multiple vibrational sidebands of the ions to create phonon-mediated entangling gates and, unlike the state of the art, requires neither weak-coupling Lamb–Dicke approximation nor perturbation treatment. With the application of gradient-based optimal control, it enables finding amplitude- and phase-modulated laser control protocols that work without the Lamb–Dicke approximation, promising gate speeds on the order of microseconds comparable to the characteristic trap frequencies. Also, robustness requirements on the temperature of the ions and initial optical phase can be conveniently included to pursue high-quality fast gates against experimental imperfections. Our approach represents a step in speeding up quantum gates to achieve larger quantum circuits for quantum computation and simulation, and thus can find applications in near-future experiments.