Sascha Heußen – Personal Website

About Me

I am a postdoc-level research scientist. My interests are in small-scale fault tolerance and near-term implementations of quantum error correction. This matters because ultra-high-fidelity qubits are needed to practically implement quantum algorithms that are actually useful and cannot be simulated on classical computers. My current affiliation is with neQxt [nɛkst], an ion-trap quantum computing company. I am based in Cologne, Germany.

Join the team

We are always looking for curious and motivated researchers to join our theory team at neQxt. Whether you're interested in a permanent position, a temporary stay, or a collaboration, we’d be glad to hear from you.

If you are working on topics related to quantum error correction, fault tolerance, or quantum computing theory more broadly, let’s connect and explore how we can work together.

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Projects

Universal quantum gate operations Design and benchmark fault-tolerant logical gates in different QEC codes. Universality is required to provide an advantage over classical computers.
Hardware-tailored QEC Adapt quantum error correction routines to near-term hardware platform requirements like limited connectivity, modular architectures or measurement-free approaches.
Efficient noise modeling & simulation Build effective noise models that accurately capture dominant sources of noise and perform classical numerical simulations efficiently.

Here is a complete list of publications and preprints

S. Heußen (2025). Magic state distillation without measurements and post-selection. APL Quantum 2, 046113. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0280551
J. Old, J. Bechar, M. Müller & S. Heußen (2025). Addressable fault-tolerant universal quantum gate operations for high-rate lift-connected surface codes. arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.10191.
S. Heußen & J. Hilder (2025). Efficient fault-tolerant code switching via one-way transversal CNOT gates. Quantum, 9, 1846. https://doi.org/10.22331/q-2025-09-03-1846
J. Hilder, S. Heußen, A. Ginter, A. Wilke, U. Poschinger, F. Schmidt-Kaler, & W. Wormsbecher (2025). Quantum Internet in a Nutshell — Advancing Quantum Communication with Ion Traps. arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.14383.
L. Postler, F. Butt, I. Pogorelov, C. D. Marciniak, S. Heußen, R. Blatt, P. Schindler, M. Rispler, M. Müller, & T. Monz (2024). Demonstration of fault-tolerant Steane quantum error correction. PRX Quantum, 5(3), 030326. https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.030326
S. Heußen, D. Winter, M. Rispler, & M. Müller (2024). Dynamical subset sampling of quantum error-correcting protocols. Physical Review Research, 6(1), 013177. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.013177
S. Heußen, D. F. Locher, & M. Müller (2024). Measurement-free fault-tolerant quantum error correction in near-term devices. PRX Quantum, 5(1), 010333. https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.010333
F. Butt, S. Heußen, M. Rispler, & M. Müller (2024). Fault-tolerant code-switching protocols for near-term quantum processors. PRX Quantum, 5(2), 020345. https://doi.org/10.1103/PRXQuantum.5.020345
S. Heußen, L. Postler, M. Rispler, I. Pogorelov, C. D. Marciniak, T. Monz, P. Schindler, & M. Müller (2023). Strategies for a practical advantage of fault-tolerant circuit design in noisy trapped-ion quantum computers. Physical Review A, 107(4), 042422. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.107.042422
L. Postler, S. Heußen, I. Pogorelov, M. Rispler, T. Feldker, M. Meth, C. D. Marciniak, R. Stricker, M. Ringbauer, R. Blatt, et al. (2022). Demonstration of fault-tolerant universal quantum gate operations. Nature, 605(7911), 675–680. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04721-1
S. Heußen, C. D. White, & G. Refael (2021). Extracting many-body localization lengths with an imaginary vector potential. Physical Review B, 103(6), 064201. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.064201

My dissertation "Applications of fault-tolerant topological quantum error correction in near-term devices" from RWTH Aachen University was awarded the Quantum Future Award in 2024 by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. I am leading the project "Scalable near-term algorithms for quantum computing systems" (snaQCs2025), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space. Read more about my research on near-term fault-tolerant quantum computing here.

Contact

Email: s.heussen@neqxt.org

Publication list on Google Scholar

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