Scalable and programmable phononic network with trapped ions

Abstract

A network of bosons evolving among different modes while passing through beam splitters and phase shifters has been applied to demonstrate quantum computational advantage. While such networks have mostly been implemented in optical systems using photons, alternative realizations addressing major limitations in photonic systems such as photon loss have been explored recently. Quantized excitations of vibrational modes (phonons) of trapped ions are a promising candidate to realize such bosonic networks. Here, we demonstrate a minimal-loss programmable phononic network in which any phononic state can be deterministically prepared and detected. We realize networks with up to four collective vibrational modes, which can be extended to reveal quantum advantage. We benchmark the performance of the network for an exemplary tomography algorithm using arbitrary multi-mode states with fixed total phonon number. We obtain high reconstruction fidelities for both single- and two-phonon states. Our experiment demonstrates a clear pathway to scale up a phononic network for quantum information processing beyond the limitations of classical and photonic systems. The scalability of quantum information processing applications is generally hindered by loss and inefficient preparation and detection. A minimal loss network based on phonons has now been realized with trapped ions.