Towards quantum error correction with ions: qubit loss correction and code stitching

Quantum computing promises to solve problems ranging from finance, via chemistry, to climate change. Before these potential applications can be targeted, quantum computers need to be scaled up to sufficiently large systems. With the size of the system growing, the likelihood for errors to occur increases - unless you try to correct for errors on the run. Error correction requires the redundant encoding of quantum information across several physical qubits in a so-called logical qubit. To date, quantum error correction has focused on correcting errors within the computational subspace and a single logical qubit. In this presentation the first experiments with respect to the correction of qubit-loss, an error that can usually not be corrected, as well as the first implementation of operations between two logical qubits, will be presented.