About Pasqal

PASQAL designs and develops Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) and associated software tools.
Our innovative technology enables us to address use cases that are currently beyond the reach of the most powerful supercomputers; these cases can concern industrial application challenges as well as fundamental science needs.
In addition to the exceptional computing power they provide, QPUs are highly energy efficient and will contribute to a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of the HPC industry. 

 Job Description

As part of our strong growth, we are recruiting for an Internship on optimizing quantum operations for hardware to reinforce our Protocols team at Pasqal. 

Fidelities of entangling operations in neutral atom platforms have benefited from the development of time-optimal gates, which perform a CZ gate in the minimal amount of time possible, thereby reducing infidelities from intermediate state scattering and the finite lifetime of the Rydberg state.

While a good theoretical protocol for these operations exists (Jandura & Pupillo), it isn’t always easy to verify the hardware implementation of the desired control pulse. In this particular case this consists of a sinusoid applied to the phase of the drive, but it’s difficult to measure the exact phase experienced by the atoms.

It seems likely that some optimization on the hardware will always be required, and to that end we’d like to set up an optimization routine that finds the optimal pulse parameters for a given hardware setup.

Inspired by the recent paper from Infleqtion, we’d like to investigate the use of a Bayesian optimization routine (see, e.g., Fig. 3d and Sec. 6.4 in the paper). The benefit of this approach is that it doesn’t require the calculation of a gradient, which would be costly to do on the hardware.

Some of the aims of this internship, would be:

• Set up a program that parametrizes the optimal control pulse,
• Apply it to a numerical simulation of the hardware with some reasonable noise model,
• Set up a routine that optimizes the control, which can initially be done on the wave function, but would ideally also be tested on simulated shots as we’d obtain them from the hardware.

About you

Candidates are expected to have a background in (quantum) physics and to possess some understanding of how noisy quantum systems can be simulated numerically, preferably using the Python stack.

What we offer

• Office in Amsterdma
• Type of contract : Internship
• A dynamic and close-knit international team

Recruitment process

• An interview with our Talent Acquisition Specialist of 30'.
• An exchange with your future tutor.
• An onsite visit of the office in Amsterdam.
• An offer!

PASQAL is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, as inclusion and diversity are essential to achieving our mission. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, ethnicity, age, religion or sexual orientation.