Quantum Computation and Quantum Information, Michael A. Nielsen, Isaac L. Chuang, 2010 (Cambridge University Press) - A canonical textbook providing foundational concepts of quantum mechanics and quantum information, including comprehensive coverage of quantum noise, decoherence, and basic error models.
Randomized benchmarking of quantum gates, E. Knill, D. Leibfried, R. Reichle, J. Britton, R. B. Blakestad, J. D. Jost, C. Langer, R. Ozeri, S. Seidelin, and D. J. Wineland, 2008Physical Review A, Vol. 77 (American Physical Society)DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.77.012307 - A foundational paper introducing Randomized Benchmarking, a scalable protocol for estimating the average fidelity of quantum gates, crucial for characterizing hardware performance.
Quantum Computing in the NISQ era and beyond, John Preskill, 2018Quantum, Vol. 2 (Verein zur Förderung des Open Access Publizierens in den Quantenwissenschaften)DOI: 10.22331/q-2018-08-06-79 - A highly influential review article that defines the NISQ era and highlights the challenges posed by noise and errors in current quantum hardware, providing context for the necessity of characterization.