Surface codes: Towards practical large-scale quantum computation

Understand

This article provides an introduction to surface code quantum computing.

• We first estimate the size and speed of a surface code quantum computer.
• We then introduce the concept of the stabilizer, using two qubits, and extend this concept to stabilizers acting on a two-dimensional array of physical qubits, on which we implement the surface code.
• We next describe how logical qubits are formed in the surface code array and give numerical estimates of their fault-tolerance.