Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-19-2013

Publication Title

Nature Communications

Department

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

Quantum memory is a central component for quantum information processing devices, and will be required to provide high-fidelity storage of arbitrary states, long storage times and small access latencies. Despite growing interest in applying physical-layer error-suppression strategies to boost fidelities, it has not previously been possible to meet such competing demands with a single approach. Here we use an experimentally validated theoretical framework to identify periodic repetition of a high-order dynamical decoupling sequence as a systematic strategy to meet these challenges. We provide analytic bounds—validated by numerical calculations—on the characteristics of the relevant control sequences and show that a ‘stroboscopic saturation’ of coherence, or coherence plateau, can be engineered, even in the presence of experimental imperfection. This permits high-fidelity storage for times that can be exceptionally long, meaning that our device-independent results should prove instrumental in producing practically useful quantum technologies.

DOI

10.1038/ncomms3045

Included in

Physics Commons

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