The Impact of the Sun on Trapped-Ion Quantum Computers
Michael Mills, Jonathon A. Sedlacek, Tim Peterson, Sara Campbell, Jacob Johansen, Joan Dreiling, David Francois · 2022 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE) · 2022
The sun causes fluctuations in the magnetic field on earth, both from slow, daily trends as well as from faster activity such as coronal mass ejections. These magnetic field fluctuations can lead to a miscalibration of the qubit frequency—which can induce memory error—in trapped-ion quantum computers. In fact, we find the magnetic field fluctuations from the sun are the dominant source of environmental drift of the magnetic field. The errors from these fluctuations can be mitigated to some extent by frequent calibration. Beyond this, we discuss additional methods both with and without hardware upgrades that can be implemented for further minimization of memory error in trapped-ion quantum computers.