Realization of an Error-Correcting Surface Code with Superconducting Qubits

Youwei Zhao(University of Science and Technology of China), Yangsen Ye(University of Science and Technology of China), He-Liang Huang(University of Science and Technology of China), Yiming Zhang(University of Science and Technology of China), Dachao Wu(University of Science and Technology of China), Huijie Guan(University of Science and Technology of China), Qingling Zhu(University of Science and Technology of China), Zuolin Wei(University of Science and Technology of China), Tan He(University of Science and Technology of China), Sirui Cao(University of Science and Technology of China), Fusheng Chen(University of Science and Technology of China), Tung-Hsun Chung(University of Science and Technology of China), Huiqiu Deng(University of Science and Technology of China), Daojin Fan(University of Science and Technology of China), Ming Gong(University of Science and Technology of China), Cheng Guo(University of Science and Technology of China), Shaojun Guo(University of Science and Technology of China), Lianchen Han(University of Science and Technology of China), Na Li(University of Science and Technology of China), Shaowei Li(University of Science and Technology of China), Yuan Li(University of Science and Technology of China), Futian Liang(University of Science and Technology of China), Jin Lin(University of Science and Technology of China), Haoran Qian(University of Science and Technology of China), Hao Rong(University of Science and Technology of China), Hong Su(University of Science and Technology of China), Lihua Sun(University of Science and Technology of China), Shiyu Wang(University of Science and Technology of China), Yulin Wu(University of Science and Technology of China), Yu Xu(University of Science and Technology of China), Chong Ying(University of Science and Technology of China), Jiale Yu(University of Science and Technology of China), Chen Zha(University of Science and Technology of China), Kaili Zhang(University of Science and Technology of China), Yong-Heng Huo(University of Science and Technology of China), Chao‐Yang Lu(University of Science and Technology of China), Cheng-Zhi Peng(University of Science and Technology of China), Xiaobo Zhu(University of Science and Technology of China), Jian-Wei Pan(University of Science and Technology of China)
Physical Review Letters
July 11, 2022
10.1103/physrevlett.129.030501
Cited by 315Open Access
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Abstract

Quantum error correction is a critical technique for transitioning from noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices to fully fledged quantum computers. The surface code, which has a high threshold error rate, is the leading quantum error correction code for two-dimensional grid architecture. So far, the repeated error correction capability of the surface code has not been realized experimentally. Here, we experimentally implement an error-correcting surface code, the distance-three surface code which consists of 17 qubits, on the Zuchongzhi 2.1 superconducting quantum processor. By executing several consecutive error correction cycles, the logical error can be significantly reduced after applying corrections, achieving the repeated error correction of surface code for the first time. This experiment represents a fully functional instance of an error-correcting surface code, providing a key step on the path towards scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing.

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