Deep Reinforcement Learning Quantum Control on IBMQ Platforms and Qiskit Pulse

Quantum optimal control theory (QOCT) typically addresses the control of physical qubits. Finding explicit pulse control sequences in such a framework is challenging, especially when an underlying physical model is unknown. We propose a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method, which doesn’t require any underlying gate model or qubit pre-calibration, capable of controlling a superconductive qubit via analog pulses acting in the IBM Qiskit Pulse environment. We applied the method to build a single-qubit gate with high fidelity and short duration at pulse level. In particular, the DRL agent approximated the X90 gate at the physical layer on the IBM Armonk transmon superconductive qubit simulated by the Qiskit Pulse simulator. The learned sequence has an average gate fidelity greater than 0.978 and a duration of 58 ns only, faster than the default X90 pulse IBM implementation, which has a runtime of 140 ns. Without prior knowledge and gate model knowledge, the agent learned a non-traditional shaped microwave pulse, providing an alternative strategy for controlling noisy quantum states.