Amazon Braket now supports pulse-level access to study the performance of today’s quantum computers

[Amazon Braket](/braket/), the quantum computing service from AWS, aims to accelerate research and software development in quantum computing. Today, we are adding support for pulse-level access to superconducting quantum processors from Rigetti Computing and Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) by launching Braket Pulse, a new feature for running pulse-level quantum programs. With this launch, Braket customers have more choice and can dive deeper in their research with the option to code their quantum programs using gates, pulses, or a combination of both. To study and optimize the performance of today’s quantum computers, researchers often need access to the lowest level of control over the hardware in order to explore use cases such as studying noise or cross-talk, developing new and more robust gates, devising error mitigation schemes, and exploring novel quantum algorithms. Braket Pulse enables customers to manipulate the low-level, analog signals or pulses, that control the qubits of a quantum processor. Customers can use Braket Pulse selectively within their gate-based quantum circuits by inserting blocks of pulse instructions in specific areas of the program to focus on optimizing individual operations and fine tune performance. To take advantage of the Braket Pulse feature, customers can use the [Braket SDK](https://github.com/aws/amazon-braket-sdk-python) or Braket API, or submit tasks directly using the Open Quantum Assembly Language (OpenQASM), an intermediate representation for quantum instructions. Braket Pulse can be used at no extra cost to program the Rigetti and OQC devices in the US West (N. California) and Europe (London) AWS regions respectively. To get started with Braket Pulse, check out our [example notebooks](https://github.com/aws/amazon-braket-examples/tree/main/examples/pulse%5Fcontrol) or check out our [blog post](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/quantum-computing/amazon-braket-launches-braket-pulse-to-develop-quantum-programs-at-the-pulse-level/).