Neutral-Atom Arrays Are A Rapidly Emerging Quantum Computing Platform. These Columbia Researchers Know How to Make the Biggest Arrays Yet - Technology Org

For quantum computers to outperform their classical counterparts, they need more quantum bits, or qubits. State-of-the-art quantum computers have around 1,000 qubits. Columbia physicists Sebastian Will and Nanfang Yu have their sights set much higher. Illustration of a neutral atom array. Image credit: Will Lab, Columbia University “We are laying critical groundwork to enable quantum computers with more than 100,000 qubits,” Will said. In a new paper published in Nature, Will and Yu combine two powerful technologies—optical tweezers and metasurfaces—to dramatically scale the size of neutral-atom arrays. Neutral-atom arrays are a rapidly emerging platform to create quantum computers. In a foundational study led by graduate students Aaron Holman and Yuan Xu from the Will and Yu labs, respectively, the team successfully trapped 1,000 strontium atoms and demonstrated that their approach can scale to well above 100,000. These atoms could one day serve as qubits in a quantum computer, a task for which atoms are well-suited. Atoms offer a powerful way to engineer the quantum properties that quantum computers need, like superposition and entanglement. Each atom is also identical, so there’s no need to spend time characterizing and synchronizing them—a daunting task for fabricated forms of qubits, especially as the number grows. “Atoms are nature’s own qubits; perfectly identical and massively abundant. The bottleneck has always been finding a way to control them at scale,” said Holman. For about a decade, researchers have been trapping atoms with what are known as optical tweezer arrays. In essence, a single “optical tweezer” is a tightly focused laser beam that holds an individual atom at its focal point. Tweezer arrays are made up of many individual tweezers, typically generated via spatial light modulators (SLMs) or acousto-optic deflectors (AODs). Using these techniques, a team at Caltech recently achieved arrays with 6,100 trapped atoms and demonstrated that they can successfully function as qubits. “Their report is an amazing achievement,” said Will. “With our metasurface tweezer array approach, we hope to scale neutral-atom arrays even further, perhaps even beyond 100,000 atoms.” This scaling comes from a fundamentally new approach to generating optical tweezer arrays: metasurfaces. Metasurfaces are flat optical devices comprising a two-dimensional array of nanometer-sized “pixels.” When a single beam of light passes through a metasurface, it is shaped by the pixels into a unique pattern. In the current work, the pixels are much smaller than the wavelength of the light they are manipulating: less than 200 nm, compared to the 520-nm light used for the tweezers. That means they can directly generate a tweezer array; SLM and AOD approaches require additional equipment that is bulky, expensive, and limits the ultimate size of the array. “The metasurfaces used in this work can be considered a superposition of tens of thousands of flat lenses over the same plane and differing in their focal spot location,” said Yu, “so that upon the incidence of a laser beam, one metasurface can simultaneously produce tens of thousands of focal spots.” The metasurfaces, made from silicon nitride and titanium dioxide, can also tolerate extremely powerful lasers with optical intensities of more than 2000 W/mm2—that’s about a million times more intense than sunlight as it reaches Earth. “The high-power handling capability of metasurfaces coupled with the scalability of cleanroom nanofabrication of ever larger and more precise devices makes our platform uniquely capable of realizing massively scalable optical tweezer arrays,” said Xu. For the paper, the team demonstrated the versatility of the metasurface optical tweezer platform by trapping atoms into a number of highly uniform 2D arrays. The patterns include a square lattice with 1024 sites; quasicrystal and Statue of Liberty patterns with hundreds of sites; and a circle made up of atoms spaced just under 1.5 microns apart.

The team also created a 3.5-mm diameter metasurface containing more than 100 million pixels that generates a 600 x 600 array: that’s 360,000 optical tweezers in total, which is two orders of magnitude beyond the capabilities of current technologies. Will and Yu see a realistic path to scalability for neutral-atom arrays, which may not only benefit quantum computers but also other neutral-atom quantum technologies, like quantum simulators, which help scientists model complex quantum many-body phenomena, and precise optical atomic clocks that could be deployed outside of laboratories. What’s next?

The team is ready to take on more atoms. To do so, they just need a bigger laser. “To trap a hundred thousand atoms, we’ll need a much more powerful laser than we currently have,” said Will. “But, it’s in a realistic range.” Source: Columbia University Related links: * Indicates required fields Your Name* Your company/organization* Your country* ArubaAfghanistanAngolaAnguillaÅland IslandsAlbaniaAndorraUnited Arab EmiratesArgentinaArmeniaAmerican SamoaAntarcticaFrench Southern TerritoriesAntigua and BarbudaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBurundiBelgiumBeninBonaire, Sint Eustatius and SabaBurkina FasoBangladeshBulgariaBahrainBahamasBosnia and HerzegovinaSaint BarthélemyBelarusBelizeBermudaBolivia, Plurinational State ofBrazilBarbadosBrunei DarussalamBhutanBouvet IslandBotswanaCentral African RepublicCanadaCocos (Keeling) IslandsSwitzerlandChileChinaCôte d'IvoireCameroonCongo, Democratic Republic of theCongoCook IslandsColombiaComorosCabo VerdeCosta RicaCubaCuraçaoChristmas IslandCayman IslandsCyprusCzechiaGermanyDjiboutiDominicaDenmarkDominican RepublicAlgeriaEcuadorEgyptEritreaWestern SaharaSpainEstoniaEthiopiaFinlandFijiFalkland Islands (Malvinas)FranceFaroe IslandsMicronesia, Federated States ofGabonUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandGeorgiaGuernseyGhanaGibraltarGuineaGuadeloupeGambiaGuinea-BissauEquatorial GuineaGreeceGrenadaGreenlandGuatemalaFrench GuianaGuamGuyanaHong KongHeard Island and McDonald IslandsHondurasCroatiaHaitiHungaryIndonesiaIsle of ManIndiaBritish Indian Ocean TerritoryIrelandIran, Islamic Republic ofIraqIcelandIsraelItalyJamaicaJerseyJordanJapanKazakhstanKenyaKyrgyzstanCambodiaKiribatiSaint Kitts and NevisKorea, Republic ofKuwaitLao People's Democratic RepublicLebanonLiberiaLibyaSaint LuciaLiechtensteinSri LankaLesothoLithuaniaLuxembourgLatviaMacaoSaint Martin (French part)MoroccoMonacoMoldova, Republic ofMadagascarMaldivesMexicoMarshall IslandsNorth MacedoniaMaliMaltaMyanmarMontenegroMongoliaNorthern Mariana IslandsMozambiqueMauritaniaMontserratMartiniqueMauritiusMalawiMalaysiaMayotteNamibiaNew CaledoniaNigerNorfolk IslandNigeriaNicaraguaNiueNetherlands, Kingdom of theNorwayNepalNauruNew ZealandOmanPakistanPanamaPitcairnPeruPhilippinesPalauPapua New GuineaPolandPuerto RicoKorea, Democratic People's Republic ofPortugalParaguayPalestine, State ofFrench PolynesiaQatarRéunionRomaniaRussian FederationRwandaSaudi ArabiaSudanSenegalSingaporeSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSaint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da CunhaSvalbard and Jan MayenSolomon IslandsSierra LeoneEl SalvadorSan MarinoSomaliaSaint Pierre and MiquelonSerbiaSouth SudanSao Tome and PrincipeSurinameSlovakiaSloveniaSwedenEswatiniSint Maarten (Dutch part)SeychellesSyrian Arab RepublicTurks and Caicos IslandsChadTogoThailandTajikistanTokelauTurkmenistanTimor-LesteTongaTrinidad and TobagoTunisiaTürkiyeTuvaluTaiwan, Province of ChinaTanzania, United Republic ofUgandaUkraineUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsUruguayUnited States of AmericaUzbekistanHoly SeeSaint Vincent and the GrenadinesVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofVirgin Islands, BritishVirgin Islands, U.S.Viet NamVanuatuWallis and FutunaSamoaYemenSouth AfricaZambiaZimbabwe Your contact email* Link URL to a page you want to share* Annotation for the link* (80-400 characters) Additional comments (optional) I agree* to the submission terms and conditions. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post. Directional Sound Installation for a Phonic Contemporary OperaFeatured Post Subscribe for a periodic newsletter with spotlight news Related posts: Precision machining produces tiny, light-guiding cubes for advancing info techJanuary 30, 2022 Caltech Team Sets Record with 6,100-Qubit ArraySeptember 27, 2025 Researchers Make a Quantum Computing Leap With a Magnetic TwistJuly 2, 2023 With a new, incredibly precise instrument, researchers narrow search for dark energyJune 29, 2024 Two-dimensional material could store quantum information at room temperatureFebruary 17, 2022 Quantum Sensing Using Ultrafast Laser Pulses and a New Class of Molecular ProbesDecember 9, 2024 Scientists move quantum optic networks a step closer to realityJanuary 3, 2019 Blueprint for a robust quantum futureApril 29, 2021 Multiplexing Entanglement in a Quantum NetworkMarch 19, 2025