Single-step implementation of high-fidelity n-bit Toffoli gates

The family of n-bit Toffoli gates, with the two-bit Toffoli gate as the figurehead, are of great interest in quantum information as they can be used as universal gates and in quantum error correction, among other things. We present a single-step implementation of arbitrary n-bit Toffoli gates (up to a local change of basis), based on resonantly driving a single qubit that has a strong Ising coupling to n other qubits. The setup in the two-qubit case turns out to be identical to the universal Barenco gate. The gate time and error are, in theory, independent of the number of control qubits, scaling better than conventional circuit decompositions. We note that our assumptions, namely, strongly coupling n + 1 qubits and a driving frequency that scales with n, may break down for large systems. Still, our protocol could enhance the capabilities of intermediate-scale quantum computers, and we discuss the prospects of implementing our protocol on trapped ions, Rydberg atoms, and superconducting circuits. Simulations of the latter platform show that the Toffoli gate with two control bits attains fidelities of above 0.98 even in the presence of decoherence. We also show how similar ideas can be used to make a series of controlled-not gates in a single step. We show how these can speed up the implementation of quantum error correcting codes and we simulate the encoding steps of the three-qubit bit-flip code and the seven-qubit Steane code.