The ability to physically move qubits within a register allows the design of hardware-specific error correction codes, which can achieve fault tolerance while respecting other constraints. In particular, recent advancements have demonstrated the shuttling of electron and hole spin qubits through a quantum dot array with high fidelity. It is therefore timely to explore error correction architectures consisting merely of two parallel quantum dot arrays, an experimentally validated architecture compatible with classical wiring and control constraints. Upon such an architecture, we develop a suite of heuristic methods for compiling any Calderbank-Shor-Steane (CSS) error-correcting code's syndrome-extraction circuit to run with a reduced number of shuttling operations. We demonstrate how column-regular qLDPC codes can be compiled in a provably minimal number of shuttles that is exactly equal to the column weight of the code when Shor-style syndrome extraction is used. We provide tables stating the number of required shuttles for many contemporary codes of interest. In addition, we provide a proof of the NP hardness of minimizing the number of shuttle operations for general codes, even when using Shor-syndrome extraction. We also discuss how one could get around this by placing blanks in the ancilla array to achieve minimal shuttles with Shor-syndrome extraction on any CSS code, at the cost of longer ancilla arrays.

We present and experimentally implement a real-time protocol for calibrating the frequency of a resonantly driven qubit, achieving exponential scaling in calibration precision with the number of measurements, up to the limit imposed by decoherence. The real-time processing capabilities of a classical controller dynamically generate adaptive probing sequences for qubit-frequency estimation. Each probing evolution time and drive frequency are calculated to divide the prior probability distribution into two branches, following a locally optimal strategy that mimics a conventional binary search. The scheme does not require repeated measurements at the same setting, as it accounts for state preparation and measurement errors. Its use of a parametrized probability distribution favors numerical accuracy and computational speed. We show the efficacy of the algorithm by stabilizing a flux-tunable transmon qubit, leading to improved coherence and gate fidelity. As benchmarked by gate-set tomography, the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) powered control electronics partially mitigates non-Markovian noise, which is detrimental to quantum error correction. The mitigation is achieved by dynamically updating and feeding forward the qubit frequency. Our protocol highlights the importance of feedback in improving the calibration and stability of qubits subject to drift and can be readily applied to other qubit platforms.

We investigate automated in situ optimization of the potential landscape in a quantum point contact device, using a 3×3 gate array patterned atop the constriction. Optimization is performed using the covariance matrix adaptation evolutionary strategy, for which we introduce a metric for how "steplike"the conductance is as the channel becomes constricted. We first perform the optimization of the gate voltages in a tight-binding simulation and show how such in situ tuning can be used to mitigate a random disorder potential. The optimization is then performed in a physical device in experiment, where we also observe a marked improvement in the quantization of the conductance resulting from the optimization procedure.

As one of the few group IV materials with the potential to host superconductor–semiconductor hybrid devices, planar germanium hosting proximitized quantum dots is a compelling platform to achieve and combine topological superconductivity with existing and new qubit modalities. We demonstrate a quantum dot in a Ge/SiGe heterostructure proximitized by a platinum germanosilicide (PtSiGe) superconducting lead, forming a superconducting lead–quantum dot–superconducting lead junction. We show tunability of the coupling strength between the quantum dot and the superconducting lead, and gate control of the ratio of charging energy and the induced gap, and we tune the ground state of the system between even and odd parity. Furthermore, we characterize critical magnetic field strengths, finding a critical out-of-plane field of 0.90 ± 0.04 T. Finally, we explore sub-gap spin splitting, observing rich physics in the resulting spectra, that we model using a zero-bandwidth model in the Yu–Shiba–Rusinov limit. Our findings open up the physics of alternative spin and superconducting qubits, and the physics of Josephson junction arrays, in germanium.

In a gate defined quantum dot in Bernal bilayer graphene, a combination of spin and valley protection diminishes spin relaxation drastically and yields a lifetime of 38 seconds.

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are a promising platform for multiple different qubit implementations, all of which are voltage controlled by programmable gate electrodes. However, as the QD arrays grow in size and complexity, tuning procedures that can fully autonomously handle the increasing number of control parameters are becoming essential for enabling scalability. We propose a bootstrapping algorithm for initializing a depletion-mode QD device in preparation for subsequent phases of tuning. During bootstrapping, the QD device functionality is validated, all gates are characterized, and the QD charge sensor is made operational. We demonstrate the bootstrapping protocol in conjunction with a coarse-tuning module, showing that the combined algorithm can efficiently and reliably take a cooled-down QD device to a desired global-state configuration in under 8 min, with a success rate of 96%. Finally, by following heuristic approaches to QD device initialization and combining the efficient ray-based measurement with the rapid radio-frequency reflectometry measurements, the proposed algorithm establishes a reference in terms of performance, reliability, and efficiency against which alternative algorithms can be benchmarked.