Hardware & Errors
Trapped-Ion Qubit
A qubit implemented using individual charged atoms (ions) suspended and controlled by electromagnetic fields.
Definition
Trapped-ion qubits use individual ions (electrically charged atoms) held in place by electromagnetic fields in a vacuum chamber, with their internal energy states used to represent quantum information. Lasers are typically used to manipulate and read out the ions' states.
Technical Definition
Trapped-ion systems often achieve all-to-all qubit connectivity (any qubit can interact with any other) and notably long coherence times compared to superconducting alternatives, though gate operations are typically slower, on the order of microseconds rather than nanoseconds.
Visual Explanation: An Analogy
Think of trapped ions like marbles held in place by an invisible magnetic force field, arranged in a row — lasers act like precise tools that can be aimed at any individual marble (or pair of marbles) to perform an operation.
Real-World Use Cases
- Used by companies like IonQ and Quantinuum
- Particularly well suited to algorithms requiring high connectivity between qubits
- Often used in record-setting two-qubit gate fidelity demonstrations