IonQ Shatters Quantum Speed Record with 1,000 Entanglements Per Second
Quantum computing pioneer, IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), has unveiled a groundbreaking achievement. The company’s researchers have successfully attained entanglement rates surpassing 1,000 events per second (1 kHz). This was accomplished between a trapped-ion qubit and a solid-state silicon-vacancy quantum memory, linked via a photonic interconnect. This is a first in the world of quantum computing.
The demonstration, detailed in a preprint titled “Quantum Networking at the Speed of Quantum Computation: Kilohertz Entanglement in a Heterogeneous Quantum System,” was a collaborative effort. It involved 39 researchers from IonQ and Duke University. The outcome is over four times faster than the previous record for a trapped-ion interconnect, a record held by IonQ co-founder Chris Monroe’s group at Duke.
The photonic link connects a barium-138 trapped ion to a silicon-vacancy center. This center is embedded in a diamond nanophotonic cavity, cooled to approximately 100 millikelvin. IonQ asserts that this addresses a significant bottleneck in the scaling of quantum computers into networked, distributed systems. This is akin to how classical data centers scale by linking specialized processors.
“IonQ has crossed a pivotal milestone for memory-enhanced quantum interconnects,” stated Chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi. This achievement also aligns with IonQ’s involvement in DARPA’s HARQ program. It follows the commercial system sales to the University of Maryland and South Korea’s SDT.
Source: The Quantum Insider – IonQ Demonstrates 1,000 Entanglement Events per Second in Quantum Interconnect