Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19631 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866918399025610752 |
|---|---|
| author | Pi, Jiahao Liu, Xiangjia Cao, Junle Wang, Pengfei Ou, Lingfeng Gao, Erfu Tu, Hengchao Zou, Menglin Zhang, Xiang Zhang, Junhua Kim, Kihwan |
| author_facet | Pi, Jiahao Liu, Xiangjia Cao, Junle Wang, Pengfei Ou, Lingfeng Gao, Erfu Tu, Hengchao Zou, Menglin Zhang, Xiang Zhang, Junhua Kim, Kihwan |
| contents | Quantum systems promise to revolutionize information processing science and technology [1-3]. The preservation of quantum coherence, the defining property of qubits, fundamentally constrains the performance of quantum information processing with quantum memories [4]. While trapped atomic ions theoretically support million-year coherence based on spontaneous emission [5-7], experimental demonstrations have reached far less, only about an hour [8-13]. Here we combine clock-state qubits with decoherence-free subspace (DFS) encoding to achieve coherence exceeding ten hours. Using correlation-based phase tracking in 171Yb+ ion pairs sympathetically cooled by 138Ba+ ion, we demonstrate this without magnetic shielding or enhanced microwave phase stabilization that previously limited coherence times. DFS encoding references the qubit phase to the inter-ion energy difference to reject microwave phase noise and common-mode magnetic fluctuations, while clock states provide environmental insensitivity. Throughout measurements extended to 1600 seconds, we observe minimal coherence decay, with exponential fits yielding a coherence time of (3.77 +/- 1.09) x 10^4 seconds. Our results establish DFS encoding as a form of passive error correction that eliminates technical noise constraints, unlocking the million-year coherence potential of atomic ions for scalable quantum information processing. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_19631 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Beyond-Ten-Hour Coherence in a Decoherence-Free Trapped-Ion Clock Qubit Pi, Jiahao Liu, Xiangjia Cao, Junle Wang, Pengfei Ou, Lingfeng Gao, Erfu Tu, Hengchao Zou, Menglin Zhang, Xiang Zhang, Junhua Kim, Kihwan Quantum Physics Quantum systems promise to revolutionize information processing science and technology [1-3]. The preservation of quantum coherence, the defining property of qubits, fundamentally constrains the performance of quantum information processing with quantum memories [4]. While trapped atomic ions theoretically support million-year coherence based on spontaneous emission [5-7], experimental demonstrations have reached far less, only about an hour [8-13]. Here we combine clock-state qubits with decoherence-free subspace (DFS) encoding to achieve coherence exceeding ten hours. Using correlation-based phase tracking in 171Yb+ ion pairs sympathetically cooled by 138Ba+ ion, we demonstrate this without magnetic shielding or enhanced microwave phase stabilization that previously limited coherence times. DFS encoding references the qubit phase to the inter-ion energy difference to reject microwave phase noise and common-mode magnetic fluctuations, while clock states provide environmental insensitivity. Throughout measurements extended to 1600 seconds, we observe minimal coherence decay, with exponential fits yielding a coherence time of (3.77 +/- 1.09) x 10^4 seconds. Our results establish DFS encoding as a form of passive error correction that eliminates technical noise constraints, unlocking the million-year coherence potential of atomic ions for scalable quantum information processing. |
| title | Beyond-Ten-Hour Coherence in a Decoherence-Free Trapped-Ion Clock Qubit |
| topic | Quantum Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19631 |