Fault-tolerant quantum computing with low component overhead

Quantum computers are inherently noisy, thus requiring error correction to mitigate noise. Unfortunately, the engineering overhead associated with error correction is currently massive, hindering the development of a large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer. Current methods require hundreds if not thousands of experimental components to build a single error-corrected qubit that can run practical algorithms. Addressing this issue, Stanford researchers have proposed a simple protocol that minimizes the component overhead for fault-tolerant quantum computation. This approach is based on a novel procedure for fault-tolerantly preparing three-dimensional cluster states using a single emitter and a pair of delay lines (see figure below).
With continued improvements in only a few components, these systems can be promising candidates for demonstrating fault-tolerant quantum computation with a comparatively modest experimental effort.

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Stage of Development