  Powerful Quantum Error Correction Codes (QECCs) are required for stabilizing
and protecting fragile qubits against the undesirable effects of quantum
decoherence. Similar to classical codes, hashing bound approaching QECCs may be
designed by exploiting a concatenated code structure, which invokes iterative
decoding. Therefore, in this paper we provide an extensive step-by-step
tutorial for designing EXtrinsic Information Transfer (EXIT) chart aided
concatenated quantum codes based on the underlying quantum-to-classical
isomorphism. These design lessons are then exemplified in the context of our
proposed Quantum Irregular Convolutional Code (QIRCC), which constitutes the
outer component of a concatenated quantum code. The proposed QIRCC can be
dynamically adapted to match any given inner code using EXIT charts, hence
achieving a performance close to the hashing bound. It is demonstrated that our
QIRCC-based optimized design is capable of operating within 0.4 dB of the noise
limit.
