An Upper Bound to the Number of Gates on Single Qubit within One Error-Correction Period of Quantum Computation

Based on the amplitude behavior of quantum Rabi oscillation driven by a coherent field we show that there exists an upper bound to the number of logical operation performed on any single qubit within one error-correction period of a quantum computation. We introduce a parameter to depict the maximum of this number and estimate its decoherence limit. The analysis shows that a generally accepted error-rate threshold of quantum logic gates limits the parameter to so small a number that even a double of fault-tolerant Toffoli gates can hardly be implemented reliably within one error-correction period. This result suggests that the design of feasible fault-tolerant quantum circuits is still an arduous task.