Laser-cooled trapped ions are among the most pristine and controllable quantum systems. Research performed in Prof. Islam’s group is currently focused on the following:
- Quantum simulation: The QITI laboratory is building a programmable trapped-ion quantum simulator with 171Yb+ qubits, with optical controls at the level of individual ions for studying problems in quantum many-body physics and computation.
- QuantumION: In collaboration with Prof. Crystal Senko’s group and supported by Transformative Quantum Technologies (TQT) , we are building an open-access, remotely operable trapped-ion quantum computer (QuantumION). The hardware is based on up to sixteen 133Ba+ ion-qubits.
- Quantum simulation algorithms: We research on classical and quantum algorithms to make quantum simulation more efficient, e.g. by using modern machine learning methods. We collaborate with the Perimeter Institute Quantum Intelligence Laboratory
Job opportunities
We acknowledge financial support from University of Waterloo, NSERC, Government of Ontario, US ARO, and Transformative Quantum Technologies (TQT, CFREF).
Recent News
08 Apr 2021 - paper on holographic optical addressing of ions published
Our paper on ultra-precise holographic optical addressing of ions is published in npj Quantum Information! This is an experimental research.
29 Mar 2021 - Rajibul shares his views on quantum computing in NPR Podcast
Rajibul took part in a podcast on the National Public Radio (NPR) along with Emily Kwong and Geoff Brumfiel of NPR, Chris Monroe, co-founder of IonQ and Marissa Giustina, Google.
04 Mar 2021 - New paper on arXiv
Our manuscript titled “Manipulating phonons of a trapped-ion system using optical tweezers ” is on arXiv! This is a theoretical and numerical research.
Recent Publications
Reprogrammable and high-precision holographic optical addressing of trapped ions for scalable quantum control
We demonstrate programmable, holographic optical addressing of trapped Yb+ at λ=369 nm. Using the ion as a sensor, we characterize the total optical aberrations in the entire beam path. We then compensate for the aberration by feeding back onto the hologram, such that the residual aberration at the ion is about λ/20, which is smaller than specifications for individual commercial optic.
Programmable Quantum Simulations of Spin Systems with Trapped Ions
This is a comprehensive review article on trapped-ion quantum simulation of spin systems, written jointly with colleagues from Univ. of Maryland, UCLA, Tsinghua Univ., Colorado School of Mines, Middlebury College, Rice Univ., Indiana Univ., Univ. of Waterloo, and UC Berkeley. The article should be accessible to a beginning graduate student. We give an overview of quantum simulation of non-trivial spin Hamiltonians generated by programmable interactions between trapped ion spins, adiabatic and dynamical evolution, ground state spin order and propagation of correlations in a many-body system.
Manipulating phonons of a trapped-ion system using optical tweezers
Conventional radio-frequency ion traps provide limited controls over the confining potential. In this manuscript, we theoretically and numerically investigate a hybrid trapping architecture by incorporating optical tweezers (laser beams tightly focused on individual ions) in a conventional trap. The local control over the potential would offer many capabilities - such as engineering a target set of phonon modes, fixing the motional de-coupling problem in a multi-species ion system, and allowing novel experiments in quantum thermodynamics.
