Quantum computers promise to take computing to its ultimate quantum-coherent limit, just as lasers did for light. Multiple applications in fields like energy, medicine, cryptography, and optimization are already known. The primary roadblock to development is exceptional noise sensitivity. On paper, the adiabatic quantum architecture is expected to dramatically improve robustness by maintaining a quantum computer in its lowest-energy configuration. Understanding whether this robustness is borne out in practice is an important R&D question. We are exploring this question at Sandia for silicon and trapped-neutral-atom technologies. I will give a brief background on adiabatic quantum computing (AQC), how it compares to circuit-based quantum computing, and review evidence that the approach should be more robust to noise and decoherence. I will spend the bulk of the time describing our experimental and theoretical progress on AQUARIUS, a Sandia-funded "Grand Challenge" project that is pursuing proof-of-principle experiments of AQC as well as developing designs for general-purpose (i.e., universal) AQC architectures. For this audience, I will focus especially on our silicon double-quantum dot development, which includes recent results on adiabatic algorithms we have run using our nano-fabricated devices in cryogenic environments. I will also review our progress in developing an STM-based atomic-precision (0.7 nm) lithography capability in silicon devices. This is the same technology that has received a lot of press recently for realizing a single-atom transistor.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.