麻豆淫院

The neutral atom array architecture for quantum computing has been rapidly advancing over the last several years, and a recent study in Nature has just revealed another step forward for this technology. The team of Harvard researchers involved in this study have engineered a 3,000-qubit neutral atom array system capable of operating continuously for more than two hours, which goes far beyond typical trap lifetimes of only about 60 seconds.

Typically, neutral atom array systems arrange neutral atoms, like rubidium, in an array using highly focused laser beams, called optical tweezers. The individual atoms are arranged and held under vacuum conditions and then used as qubits to perform quantum computing and other operations. However, the procedure results in the loss of some atoms.

"An outstanding challenge associated with these systems involves atom loss, originating from errors in entangling operations, state-readout, and finite trap lifetime. Atom losses necessitate pulsed operation which limits the performance of these quantum systems, including the circuit depth of quantum computation, accuracy of atomic clocks, and the rate of entanglement generation in quantum networking protocols," the study authors explain.

The team's new system no longer requires pulsed operation. Instead, it uses a dual optical lattice conveyor belt鈥搇ike system to transport cold atom reservoirs into a science region. There, the atoms are placed into the optical tweezers at a reloading rate of 300,000 atoms per second, then 30,000 qubits are initialized per second, which are used to continuously replenish the 3,000-atom array. The team was able to maintain this rate for more than two hours, all while maintaining qubit coherence and polarization, including for qubits in superposition states.

This system allows for information to be preserved, even as the atoms are replaced, because the information is transferred to the new array of atoms.

While these new accomplishments are impressive, the team believes the system can be even further improved. Reloading rates can potentially be improved by optimizing readout and rearrangement with the help of AI and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), making them up to five times faster. They also say larger arrays and longer operation times are feasible with improved optics and stabilization.

"In addition, while the present experiments demonstrate continuous operation for over two hours, achieving much longer operation would benefit from active stabilization of the SLM-AOD tweezer overlap or automated beam alignment procedures.

"Finally, higher-power trapping lasers and high-efficiency diffractive optics, such as metasurfaces, can be immediately deployed to scale the storage and preparation zone size, supporting continuous operation of tens of thousands of atomic qubits," they say.

Advancements, like this one, can enable faster, more reliable quantum networking and entanglement distribution, in addition to boosting the engineering of things like continuously operating atomic clocks and quantum sensors with higher stability and bandwidth.

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