Realization of an Error-Correcting Surface Code with Superconducting Qubits
Youwei Zhao, Yangsen Ye, He-Liang Huang, Yiming Zhang, Dachao Wu, Huijie Guan, Qingling Zhu, Zuolin Wei, Tan He, Sirui Cao, Fusheng Chen, Tung-Hsun Chung, Huiqiu Deng, Daojin Fan, Ming Gong, Cheng Guo, Shaojun Guo, Lianchen Han, Na Li, Shaowei Li, Yuan Li, Futian Liang, Jin Lin, Haoran Qian, Hao Rong, Hong Su, Lihua Sun, Shiyu Wang, Yulin Wu, Yu Xu, Chong Ying, Jiale Yu, Chen Zha, Kaili Zhang, Yong-Heng Huo, Chao‐Yang Lu, Cheng-Zhi Peng, Xiaobo Zhu, Jian-Wei Pan
Abstract
Quantum error correction is a critical technique for transitioning from noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices to fully fledged quantum computers. The surface code, which has a high threshold error rate, is the leading quantum error correction code for two-dimensional grid architecture. So far, the repeated error correction capability of the surface code has not been realized experimentally. Here, we experimentally implement an error-correcting surface code, the distance-three surface code which consists of 17 qubits, on the Zuchongzhi 2.1 superconducting quantum processor. By executing several consecutive error correction cycles, the logical error can be significantly reduced after applying corrections, achieving the repeated error correction of surface code for the first time. This experiment represents a fully functional instance of an error-correcting surface code, providing a key step on the path towards scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing.