MilestoneError correctionConfirmed
Superconducting qubits reach the accuracy needed for surface-code error correction
Apr 23, 2014
John Martinis's group at the University of California, Santa Barbara reports in Nature a five-qubit superconducting processor with 99.92% average accuracy on single-qubit gates and up to 99.4% on two-qubit gates, past the roughly 99% threshold of the surface code, a leading error-correction scheme.
Why it matters
Error correction only helps if the hardware's own errors are below a threshold. This showed superconducting circuits could get there, a prerequisite for large, fault-tolerant machines.
Rami Barends · Julian Kelly · John M. Martinis · UCSB
Related
Sources (2)
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Nature
Superconducting quantum circuits at the surface code threshold for fault tolerance
“Here we demonstrate a universal set of logic gates in a superconducting multi-qubit processor, achieving an average single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.92 per cent and a two-qubit gate fidelity of up to 99.4 per cent. This places Josephson quantum computing at the fault-tolerance threshold for surface code error correction.”
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arXiv (Barends et al.)
Logic gates at the surface code threshold: Superconducting qubits poised for fault-tolerant quantum computing
“The gate fidelity requirements are modest: The per-step fidelity threshold is only about 99%.”
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