We present an efficient approach to achieving arbitrary, high-fidelity control of a multilevel quantum system using optimal control techniques. As an demonstration, we implement a continuous, software-defined microwave pulse to realize a $0\leftrightarrow 2$ SWAP gate that achieves an average gate fidelity of 99.4%. We describe our procedure for extracting the system Hamiltonian, calibrating the quantum and classical hardware chain, and evaluating the gate fidelity. Our work represents an alternative, fully generalizable route towards achieving universal quantum control by leveraging optimal control techniques.

• Received 15 June 2020
• Accepted 14 September 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.170502