M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen entangling gate for cavity QED systems

Abstract

The M{\o}lmer-S{\o}rensen gate is a state-of-the-art entangling gate in the ion trap quantum computing where the gate fidelity can exceed 99\%. Here we propose an analogous implementation in the setting of cavity QED. The cavity photon mode acts as the bosonic degree of freedom in the gate in contrast of that played by a phonon mode in ion traps. This is made possible by utilising cavity assisted Raman transitions interconnecting the logical qubit states embedded in a four-level energy structure, making the "anti-Jaynes-Cummings" (AJC) term available under the rotating-wave approximation. We identify practical sources of infidelity and discuss their effects on the gate performance. Our proposal not only demonstrates an alternative entangling gate scheme but also sheds new light on the relationship between ion traps and cavity QED, in the sense that many techniques developed in the former are transferable to the latter through our framework.