Direct pulse-level compilation of arbitrary quantum logic gates on superconducting qutrits

Abstract: Advanced simulations and calculations on quantum computers require high-fidelity implementations of quantum operations. The universal gateset approach builds complex unitaries from a small set of primitive gates, often resulting in a long gate sequence which is typically a leading factor in the total accumulated error. Compiling a complex unitary for processors with higher-dimensional logical elements, such as qutrits, exacerbates the accumulated error per unitary, since an even longer gate sequence is required. Optimal control methods promise time and resource efficient compact gate sequences and, therefore, higher fidelity. These methods generate pulses that can directly implement any complex unitary on a quantum device. In this work, we demonstrate any arbitrary qubit and qutrit gate can be realized with high-fidelity, which can significantly reduce the length of a gate sequence. We generate and test pulses for a large set of randomly selected arbitrary unitaries on several quantum processing units (QPUs): the LLNL Quantum Device and Integration Testbed (QuDIT) standard QPU and three of Rigetti QPUs: Ankaa-2, Ankaa-9Q-1, and Aspen-M-3. On the QuDIT platform's standard QPU, the average fidelity of random qutrit gates is 97.9+-0.5% measured with conventional QPT and 98.8+-0.6% from QPT with gate folding. Rigetti's Ankaa-2 achieves random qubit gates with an average fidelity of 98.4+-0.5% (conventional QPT) and 99.7+-0.1% (QPT with gate folding). On Ankaa-9Q-1 and Aspen-M-3, the average fidelities with conventional qubit QPT measurements were higher than 99%. We show that optimal control gates are robust to drift for at least three hours and that the same calibration parameters can be used for all implemented gates. Our work promises the calibration overheads for optimal control gates can be made small enough to enable efficient quantum circuits based on this technique.