Variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) is an appealing candidate for the application of near-term quantum computers. A technique introduced in [Higgot et al., Quantum 3, 156 (2019)], which is named variational quantum deflation (VQD), has extended the ability of the VQE framework for finding excited states of a Hamiltonian. However, no method to evaluate transition amplitudes between the eigenstates found by the VQD without using any costly Hadamard-test-like circuit has been proposed despite its importance for computing properties of the system such as oscillator strengths of molecules. Here we propose a method to evaluate transition amplitudes between the eigenstates obtained by the VQD avoiding any Hadamard-test-like circuit. Our method relies only on the ability to estimate overlap between two states, so it does not restrict to the VQD eigenstates and applies for general situations. To support the significance of our method, we provide a comprehensive comparison of three previously proposed methods to find excited states with numerical simulation of three molecules (lithium hydride, diazene, and azobenzene) in a noiseless situation and find that the VQD method exhibits the best performance among the three methods. Finally, we demonstrate the validity of our method by calculating the oscillator strength of lithium hydride in numerical simulations with shot noise. Our results illustrate the superiority of the VQD to find excited states and widen its applicability to various quantum systems.

We propose an orbital optimized method for unitary coupled cluster theory (OO-UCC) within the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) framework for quantum computers. OO-UCC variationally determines the coupled cluster amplitudes and also molecular orbital coefficients. Owing to its fully variational nature, first-order properties are readily available. This feature allows the optimization of molecular structures in VQE without solving any additional equations. Furthermore, the method requires smaller active space and shallower quantum circuit than UCC to achieve the same accuracy. We present numerical examples of OO-UCC using quantum simulators, which include the geometry optimization of the water molecule.