Quantum Control and Quantum Error Correction in Trapped Ion Quantum Computers

Hyperfine trapped ion qubits are nearly ideal qubits. The qubit performance is primarily limited by the quality of the gates due to imperfections in the experimental control fields. I will present our work on characterizing and minimizing these imperfections using quantum control with an emphasis on two-qubit gates and quantum circuit designs. I will then discuss how these control methods improve the performance of quantum error correction protocols.