PhD position on sample-efficient quantum gate calibration at FZ Jülich

The Peter Grünberg Institute for Quantum Control (PGI-8) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, is offering a fully-funded PhD position for three years to pursue unique research on sample-efficient gate calibration methods based on quantum optimal control. The successful candidate will be jointly supervised by Prof. Dr. Felix Motzoi (PGI-8) and Dr. Markus Heinrich (University of Cologne).

Among other applications, optimal control theory has proven its utility for the optimal calibration of quantum gates early on and has since been used routinely in experiments. The calibration is typically based on a figure of merit derived from experimental data, such as the average gate fidelity provided by the randomized benchmarking protocol. In realistic scenarios, these quantities, however, require a significant measurement effort to be estimated, especially in the high-precision regime relevant for fault-tolerant quantum computing.

You will investigate recent advances in characterization and benchmarking protocols for their suitability to provide efficient cost functions for the optimal control of gate calibration in full-stack quantum computers and simulators. Based on your assessment, you will develop new, sample-efficient optimal control approaches for gate calibration and test them in numerical simulations. You will pursue your research with the German research collaboration QSolid, , coordinated by Forschungszentrum Jülich. You will work with experts in quantum optimal control at Forschungszentrum Jülich (Prof. Dr. Felix Motzoi, Dr. Francisco Cardenas-Lopez) and in quantum characterization at the University of Cologne (Dr. Markus Heinrich). We aim at implementing your results in in-house experiments at Forschungszentrum Jülich. You may consult the works by Felix Motzoi and Markus Heinrich for an impression of the relevant research.

Learn more / how to apply:

To read the full job advertisement, consult the FZ Jülich website, where you can find more details and also a link to the application system.

About PGI-8:

The Peter Grünberg Institute for Quantum Control (PGI-8) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich specializes in novel optimization strategies for emerging quantum technologies. These emerging technologies aim to provide transformative changes to our society, including how we think about information, and unlocking vast calculations for the natural sciences, logistical problem solving, and high-performance computation. Our group has pioneered the application of quantum optimal control methods to quantum computation and many-body quantum systems. This includes the development of physical models and model reduction techniques as well as algorithmic advances of in-situ optimization and machine learning to tackle the complex processes inherent to scalable quantum devices.