The present subject matter provides technical solutions for the technical problems facing quantum computing by improving the accuracy and precision of qubit readout. Technical solutions described herein improves the readout fidelity by reducing the ambiguity between the bright and dark states. In an embodiment, this includes transferring the qubit population that is in the dark quantum state to an auxiliary third state. The auxiliary third state remains dark and reduces the mixing between the logical bright and dark states. This process uses multiple laser pulses to ensure high fidelity population transfer, thus preserving the dark nature of the dark state. Improving readout fidelity of 171Yb+ qubits may improve fidelity by an order of magnitude, such as by improving readout fidelity from 99.9% to 99.99%. This improvement in detection fidelity may substantially increase the computational power of a quantum computer.