Q-MERGE: Parallelising Quantum State Preparation for Large-Scale Classical Data

Quantum processing of classical data fundamentally relies on efficiently mapping classical datasets onto the amplitudes of quantum states. Preparing large amplitude-encoded states, however, remains a major bottleneck in quantum computing. In this paper, we introduce a novel state-preparation framework we call Q-MERGE, that addresses this bottleneck by partitioning a large target state into M n-qubit segments, preparing these segments independently and in parallel, and then coherently combining them into a single amplitude-encoded state using SELECT-SWAP operations and measurement. Q-MERGE is agnostic to the segment-level preparation method, allowing existing techniques to be applied to smaller subproblems while providing a tunable trade-off between circuit depth and qubit count. With mid-circuit measurement and preparation-register reuse, the required ancilla qubits can be reduced from O(Mn) to O(n). Applied to a real-world 128 times256 ultrasound dataset, Q-MERGE achieves an infidelity of 1.066 times10-8, compared with 3.413 times10-1 for direct preparation using the same underlying method, a seven-order of magnitude improvement. We demonstrate its feasibility experimentally on the Quantinuum System Model H2 trapped-ion quantum computer and validate the prepared state using shadow-overlap tomography. Numerical analysis of Haar-random states indicates consistent success probability for up to M=10 7 segments, supporting the scalability of Q-MERGE for encoding massive classical datasets.