Determining classically whether a coin is fair (head on one side,
tail on the other) or fake (heads or tails on both sides) requires an
examination of each side. However, the analogous
quantum procedure (the Deutsch–Jozsa
algorithm requires just one
examination step. The Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm has been realized
experimentally using bulk nuclear magnetic resonance
techniques, employing nuclear spins as quantum bits (qubits).
In contrast, the ion
trap processor utilises motional and electronic
quantum states of individual atoms as qubits, and in
principle is easier to scale to many qubits. Experimental advances
in the latter area include the realization of a two-qubit quantum
gate6, the entanglement of four ions, quantum state engineering
and entanglement-enhanced phase estimation. Here we exploit
techniques developed for nuclear magnetic resonance to
implement the Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm on an ion-trap quantum
processor, using as
qubits the electronic and motional states of a
single calcium ion. Our ion-based
implementation of a full
quantum algorithm serves to demonstrate experimental procedures
with the quality and precision required for complex
computations, confirming the potential of trapped
ions for
quantum computation.
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