This thesis describes the development of technology and experimental techniques for scalable trapped-ion quantum computing. An architecture for scalable quantum computing
is presented in which 171Yb+ ions are trapped in linear R.F. Paul traps and their hyper-fine states are used to form qubits. Quantum logical operations can be carried out by applying R.F. and microwave fields. This thesis presents significant improvements in the experimental setup used for quantum computing, as well as new theoretical developments and experimental demonstrations of new high- fidelity quantum control methods.
A new procedure for carrying out high- delity two qubit gates using static magnetic
eld gradients and resonant microwave elds is presented. It is shown that this has the
potential to enable signi cantly improved delities compared to current methods. Improved
methods for measurement and statistical analysis in trapped-ion experiments are
also shown. These should enable more accurate measurement of two-qubit gate delities,
which becomes increasingly important as delities increase.
A new system for generating arbitrary R.F. and microwave waveforms is presented,
including a bespoke software control system allowing the user to de ne custom pulse
sequences, which represents a signi cant improvement in the scalability of the quantum
control system. Experimental developments towards a system for carrying out on-chip
trapped-ion quantum logic in a static magnetic eld gradient are also presented.
A new technique for generating multi-level control methods is introduced, based on
reducing a multi-level system to an e ective two-level system. High- delity quantum
control methods generated using this technique, which form a will form a key part of the
scalable quantum computing architecture, are implemented experimentally.