Experimental Quantum Error Correction below the Surface Code Threshold via All-Microwave Leakage Suppression

Quantum error correction (QEC) enables practical quantum computing by encoding logical qubits in many physical qubits, which can exponentially suppress the logical error rate with increasing code size provided that the physical error rate is below a critical threshold. However, the leakage of quantum information from the computational subspace presents a critical challenge to the development of scalable QEC, which creates long-lived, correlated errors that spread across space and time. Here, we demonstrate a quantum memory operating below the threshold by implementing an all-microwave leakage suppression architecture on a distance-7 surface code. We achieve a logical error suppression factor of Λ=1.40(6), definitively reversing the above-threshold scaling (Λ<1) caused by unmitigated leakage. This scheme integrates a hardware-efficient leakage reduction unit for data qubits with a fast, unconditional reset for ancilla qubits, suppressing the average leakage population after 40 cycles by a factor of 72 to 6.4(5)×10^{-4}. Our results demonstrate the viability of all-microwave control architectures for suppressing critical errors at scale, paving the way for more advanced quantum error correction implementations.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical Review Letters
Published
2025-12-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/rqkg-dw31
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
9.92
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Experimental Quantum Error Correction below the Surface Code Threshold via All-Microwave Leakage Suppression

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Physical Review Letters
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Experimental Quantum Error Correction below the Surface Code Threshold via All-Microwave Leakage Suppression

Dongxin Gao, Futian Liang, J.F. Li, Kefu Chen, Xiaobo Zhu, Chengjun Zhu, Y. Ye, Fei Zhou, Junyan Li, Yuan Sun, Junbin Tan, Xinpeng Yang, Nanxing Liao, Zuolin Wei, YanCheng Liu, Jianyu Pan, M. Nie, Qiong Shen, Tan He, Jiacheng Gui, F. Chen, Feifan Su, Weifeng Yang, M. Gong, W. Zhang, He-Liang Huang, Honghong Jin, Jiafei Wang, K. J. Nan, Lun Li, Rong Tao, Yuhuai Li, C. F. Lu, Chenyin Sun, R. N. Wang, Wenyi Peng, Lihua Sun, Daojin Fan, Lei Zheng, Zhenping Ye, Xi Chen, Ke Liu, He Zhang, Lei Jiang, Jinjin Li, Gang Wu, Bo Fan, Chun Jason Xue, Hu Deng, Zhong Zhao, Qingling Zhu, Shaojun Guo, Qinjing Yu, Xiangdong Zeng, Jianbin Cai, W. W. Lin, Dachao Wu, Yu Xu, Jiale Yu, C. P. Jiang, Huiyan Shen, Y. S. Zhang, Youwei Zhao, Guihong Zou, Linyin Hong, Na Zhou, Hong Su, Xin Yan, Chen Zha, Haonan Zou, Tianzuo Sun, Wenbing Tu, Xun Ding, Yisen Hu, Shengtao Wang, Maliang Liu, Yang Yang, Guming Zhao, Yuanhao Fu, Dayu Li, Danning Chen, Biao Wang, Yuan Li, Wenhao Chu, Chang Wang, Zhuzhengqi Ding, Chen Wang, Jiaqi Li, Yuwei Ma, Hao Rong, Kaili Zhang, Xintao Zhao, Zhengzhong Yi, Yiming Zhang, Zhiyuan Chen, Chong Ying, Shaoyu Zhan, Qiang Zhang, Na Li, Tao Jiang, Ziying Zhang, Zuokai Jiang, Xinzhe Wang, Yulin Wu, Sirui Cao, Chu Wang, Jian Wang, Cheng Guo, Jiahao Bei, Lianchen Han, Cheng-Zhi Peng, Yimeng Tan, Dongdong Li, Yong-Heng Huo, Haoran Qian, Liang Zhou, Kai Yan, Shaowei Li, Jin Lin, Haibin Zhang, Zhe Chen, Haoxin Lou, Zihua Chen
article en
4 citations

Abstract

Quantum error correction (QEC) enables practical quantum computing by encoding logical qubits in many physical qubits, which can exponentially suppress the logical error rate with increasing code size provided that the physical error rate is below a critical threshold. However, the leakage of quantum information from the computational subspace presents a critical challenge to the development of scalable QEC, which creates long-lived, correlated errors that spread across space and time. Here, we demonstrate a quantum memory operating below the threshold by implementing an all-microwave leakage suppression architecture on a distance-7 surface code. We achieve a logical error suppression factor of Λ=1.40(6), definitively reversing the above-threshold scaling (Λ<1) caused by unmitigated leakage. This scheme integrates a hardware-efficient leakage reduction unit for data qubits with a fast, unconditional reset for ancilla qubits, suppressing the average leakage population after 40 cycles by a factor of 72 to 6.4(5)×10^{-4}. Our results demonstrate the viability of all-microwave control architectures for suppressing critical errors at scale, paving the way for more advanced quantum error correction implementations.

Physical Review LettersVol. 135(26)
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), Xidian University (CN), Hefei National Center for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale (CN), Jinan Institute of Quantum Technology (CN), Microscale (United States) (US), State Key Laboratory of Cryptology (CN), QuantumCTek (China) (CN), Quantum Technologies (Sweden) (SE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 2%
Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture
9.92
DOISourceOpenAlex
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