Observing Quantum Synchronization of a Single Trapped-Ion Qubit

Abstract: Synchronizing a few-level quantum system is of fundamental importance to understanding synchronization in deep quantum regime. Whether a two-level system, the smallest quantum system, can be synchronized has been theoretically debated for the past several years. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate that a qubit can indeed be synchronized to an external driving signal by using a trapped-ion system. By engineering fully controllable gain and damping processes, an ion qubit is synchronized to oscillate at the same frequency as the driving signal and lock in phase. We systematically investigate the parameter regions of synchronization and observe characteristic features of the Arnold tongue. Our measurements agree remarkably well with numerical simulations based on recent theory on qubit synchronization. By synchronizing the basic unit of quantum information, our research opens up the possibility of applying quantum synchronization to large-scale quantum networks.