The additive codes may have better parameters than linear codes. However, it is still a challenging problem to efficiently construct additive codes that outperform linear codes, especially those with greater distances than linear codes of the same lengths and dimensions. This paper focuses on constructing additive codes that outperform linear codes based on quasi-cyclic codes and combinatorial methods. Firstly, we propose a lower bound on the symplectic distance of 1-generator quasi-cyclic codes of index even. Secondly, we get many binary quasi-cyclic codes with large symplectic distances utilizing computer-supported combination and search methods, all of which correspond to good quaternary additive codes. Notably, some additive codes have greater distances than best-known quaternary linear codes in Grassl’s code table (bounds on the minimum distance of quaternary linear codes http://www.codetables.de) for the same lengths and dimensions. Moreover, employing a combinatorial approach, we partially determine the parameters of optimal quaternary additive 3.5-dimensional codes with lengths from 28 to 254. Finally, as an extension, we also construct some good additive complementary dual codes with larger distances than the best-known quaternary linear complementary dual codes in the literature.

In this paper, we establish the necessary and sufficient conditions for quasi-cyclic (QC) codes with index even to be symplectic self-orthogonal. Subsequently, we present the lower and upper bounds on the minimum symplectic distances of a class of 1-generator QC codes and their symplectic dual codes by decomposing code spaces. As an application, we construct many new binary symplectic self-orthogonal QC codes with excellent parameters, leading to 117 record-breaking quantum error-correction codes.

This paper considers three kinds of quasi-cyclic codes of index two with one generator or two generators and their applications in quantum code construction. In accordance with the algebraic structure of linear codes, we determine the lower bounds of the symplectic weights of these quasi-cyclic codes. Quasi-cyclic codes with the dual-containing property enable the construction of quantum codes. Defining the coefficient symmetric polynomials of the generator polynomials gives a concise condition for the dual-containing of the quasi-cyclic codes. The lower bound results can significantly reduce the scope of the search for a larger minimum distance of quasi-cyclic codes. With these algebraic results and computer supports, we obtain classical quasi-cyclic codes with better parameters and some new quantum codes under the symplectic construction. In particular, two examples of the new quantum codes ${\left[[63,42,6]\right]}_2,{\left[[51,35,5]\right]}_2$ improve the corresponding codes in Grassl’s code table.