COLLEGE PARK, MD - September 12, 2024 - IonQ, a leader in the quantum computing industry, recently announced that it has surpassed “three 9’s” (99.9%) two-qubit gate fidelity on one of its next-generation barium development platforms. This is a crucial step along IonQ’s technical roadmap for developing practical, commercial quantum solutions. This achievement highlights IonQ’s dedication to research and development, and underscores the company’s commitment to bringing to market the highest-performing quantum computers in the world.

The company demonstrated optimized two-qubit gates on barium with greater than 99.9% fidelity in a two-ion chain via the same mechanisms used to realize two-qubit gates in IonQ's production quantum computers. Based on technical improvements developed to achieve this milestone, the company now has a significantly deeper understanding of how to identify and remove error mechanisms in large enterprise-grade quantum systems.

IonQ’s breakthrough achievement brings the company closer to its next-generation commercial system, IonQ Tempo – a barium system designed to drive commercial advantage – and help customers tackle their most complex problems with greater accuracy and efficiency.

“Achieving this level of fidelity is a major milestone in the quantum computing industry, as it marks a critical threshold for enterprise-grade systems – the better the native gate fidelity, the less error correction in all forms that is required. Higher fidelity is also essential for faster, more accurate quantum applications,” said Dean Kassmann, IonQ’s SVP of Engineering and Technology. “This accomplishment validates our long-term approach to barium technology as an enabler of performance, scale, and enterprise-grade systems.”

IonQ has worked with ytterbium ions for most of the company's history and has been exploring barium ions as qubits because they contain intrinsic features that offer the ability to improve quantum computer performance. Compared to traditional ytterbium ions, barium ions offer several key advantages, including a higher native fidelity limit, increased gate speeds, lower state preparation/measurement (SPAM) errors, and better stability as well as superior overall performance. As IonQ makes substantial headway towards reaching commercial advantage, IonQ expects these distinct properties will position its barium systems at the forefront of the quantum computing industry.

IonQ's technical achievements further establish its expertise and commitment to advancing the field of quantum computing. More recently, IonQ proved its novel, low overhead approach for partial quantum error correction - an important step that will enable fast, more accurate quantum applications with near-term computers.