title: Efficient measurement of quantum gate error by interleaved randomized benchmarking.
abstract: We describe a scalable experimental protocol for estimating the average error of individual quantum computational gates. This protocol consists of interleaving random Clifford gates between the gate of interest and provides an estimate as well as theoretical bounds for the average error of the gate under test, so long as the average noise variation over all Clifford gates is small. This technique takes into account both state preparation and measurement errors and is scalable in the number of qubits. We apply this protocol to a superconducting qubit system and find a bounded average error of 0.003 [0,0.016] for the single-qubit gates X(π/2) and Y(π/2). These bounded values provide better estimates of the average error than those extracted via quantum process tomography.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Easwar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Magesan
authors.forename: Jay M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gambetta
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Colm A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.forename: Jerry M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Seth T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Merkel
authors.forename: Marcus P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: George A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Keefe
authors.forename: Mary B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Rothwell
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Ohki
authors.forename: Mark B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Ketchen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steffen