Atom-orbital qubit under nonadiabatic holonomic quantum control

Abstract

Quantum computing has been attracting tremendous efforts in recent years. One prominent application is to perform programmable quantum simulations of electron correlations in large molecules and solid-state materials, where orbital degrees of freedom are crucial to quantitatively model electronic properties. Electron orbitals unlike quantum spins obey crystal symmetries, making the atomic orbital in optical lattices a natural candidate to emulate electron orbitals. Here, we construct an atom-orbital qubit by manipulating $s$ and $d$ orbitals of atomic Bose-Einstein condensation in an optical lattice. Noise-resilient single-qubit gates are achieved by performing holonomic quantum control, which allows geometrical protection. We find it is critical to eliminate the orbital leakage error in the system. Our work opens up wide opportunities for atom-orbital-based quantum information processing, of vital importance to programmable quantum simulations of multiorbital physics in molecules and quantum materials.