Single-step controlled-NOT logic from any exchange interaction

A self-contained approach to studying the unitary evolution of coupled qubits is introduced, capable of addressing a variety of physical systems described by exchange Hamiltonians containing Rabi terms. The method automatically determines both the Weyl chamber steering trajectory and the accompanying local rotations. Particular attention is paid to the case of anisotropic exchange with tracking controls, which is solved analytically. It is shown that, if computational subspace is well isolated, any exchange interaction can always generate high fidelity, singlestep controlled-NOT (CNOT) logic, provided that both qubits can be individually manipulated. The results are then applied to superconducting qubit architectures, for which several CNOT gate implementations are identified. The paper concludes with consideration of two CNOT gate designs having high efficiency and operating with no significant leakage to higher-lying noncomputational states. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.