Neutral atoms excited to Rydberg states can interact with each other via dipole-dipole interaction, which results in a physical phenomenon named Rydberg blockade mechanism. The effect attracts much attention due to its potential applications in quantum computation and quantum simulation. Quantum teleportation has been the core protocol in quantum information science playing a key role in efficient long-distance quantum communication. Here, we first propose the implementation of teleportation scheme with neutral atoms via Rydberg blockade, in which the entangled states of qubits can readily be prepared and the Bell states measurements just require single qubit operations without precise control of Rydberg interaction. The rapid experimental progress of coherent control of Rydberg excitation, optical trapping techniques and state-selective atomic detection promise the application of the teleportation scheme for scalable quantum computation and many-body quantum simulation using the protocol proposed by D. Gottesman and I. L. Chuang [Nature (London) 402, 390 (1999)] with Rydberg atoms in optical lattice.
Neutral atoms excited to Rydberg states can interact with each other via dipole-dipole interaction, which results in a physical phenomenon named Rydberg blockade mechanism. The effect attracts much attention due to its potential applications in quantum computation and quantum simulation. Quantum teleportation has been the core protocol in quantum information science playing a key role in efficient long-distance quantum communication. Here, we first propose the implementation of teleportation scheme with neutral atoms via Rydberg blockade, in which the entangled states of qubits can readily be prepared and the Bell states measurements just require single qubit operations without precise control of Rydberg interaction. The rapid experimental progress of coherent control of Rydberg excitation, optical trapping techniques and state-selective atomic detection promise the application of the teleportation scheme for scalable quantum computation and many-body quantum simulation using the protocol proposed by D. Gottesman and I. L. Chuang [Nature (London) 402, 390 (1999)] with Rydberg atoms in optical lattice.
Abstract. Neutral atoms excited to Rydberg states can interact with each other via dipole-dipole interaction, which results in a physical phenomenon named Rydberg blockade mechanism. The effect attracts much attention due to its potential applications in quantum computation and quantum simulation. Quantum teleportation has been the core protocol in quantum information science playing a key role in efficient long-distance quantum communication. Here, we first propose the implementation of teleportation scheme with neutral atoms via Rydberg blockade, in which the entangled states of qubits can readily be prepared and the Bell states measurements just require single qubit operations without precise control of Rydberg interaction. The rapid experimental progress of coherent control of Rydberg excitation, optical trapping techniques and state-selective atomic detection promise the application of the teleportation scheme for scalable quantum computation and many-body quantum simulation using the protocol proposed by D. Gottesman and I. L. Chuang [Nature (London) 402, 390 (1999) ] with Rydberg atoms in optical lattice.
Neutral atom quantum computing utilizes laser-trapped neutral atoms as qubits and realizes quantum logic gate operations through Rydberg-state interactions. In recent years, it has become one of the most vibrant directions in quantum computing hardware. This paper systematically reviews the working principles of neutral-atom quantum computers, including qubit encoding, atom trapping and manipulation, Rydberg states and interactions, the Rydberg blockade quantum gate mechanism, and atom rearrangement with reconfigurable architectures. The mainstream technical routes are surveyed, represented by optical tweezer arrays combined with Rydberg interactions, optical lattice schemes, and dipole trap arrays. A panoramic review is provided of domestic and international research progress from theoretical foundations in 2000 to the latest achievements in 2026, including thousand-qubit-scale systems, logical qubits, and quantum error correction experiments. Key breakthroughs are highlighted, such as the 6100-atom qubit array, continuous operation of a 3000-qubit system, quantum simulation of the Kitaev honeycomb model, toric code error correction demonstrations, encoding rates exceeding 1/2, and fault-tolerant architectures. The core bottlenecks are analyzed in depth, including the scalability--fidelity trade-off, engineering implementation of quantum error correction, atom loss and mid-circuit replenishment, laser system industrialization, control electronics scalability, and long-distance quantum interconnection. This paper aims to provide a systematic reference for academic research and technological development in this field.
Summary form only given. Interactions between neutral atoms are generally weak, but exciting these atoms in a Rydberg state considerably enhances their interaction through a long-range dipole-dipole potential. An interesting application of this dipole-dipole interaction is the dipole blockade in Rydberg excitation. This effect offers exciting possibilities for manipulating quantum bits stored in a single collective excitations in mesoscopic ensembles, or for realizing scalable quantum logic gate. The dipole blockade effect has been demonstrated in atomic ensembles by different groups, and recently also with two independently trapped atoms, which shows the possibility of creating entangle states and quantum logic gates. To extend and continue these results with more atoms, a promising method is to use atoms trapped in an optical lattice in the Mott insulator phase. To excite atoms into a Rydberg state, and to control the interactions and the dipole blockade, a high resolution laser scheme is needed. We use a two-photon excitation scheme 5s1/2rarr 6p3/2rarr ns or nd. The first step, at 420 nm, is realized by doubling a MOPA laser, with the second step at ~ 1000 nm. Both lasers are locked to a Fabry-Perot cavity, and the total excitation bandwidth is less than 3 MHz. After the excitation into the Rydberg state, we apply a pulsed electric field to ionize and detect the Rydberg atoms with an ion detector. To characterize and improve the efficiency of our ion detection, we have explored the direct ionization of ultracold atoms in a magneto-optical trap, or in a Bose-Einstein condensate. This calibration will allows us to characterize precisely the Rydberg excitation and to monitor its time evolution. First results on the Rydberg excitation of ultracold atoms in dipole traps and optical lattices will be presented. The prospect for creating Rydberg excitations inside a Mott insulator will also be discussed.
Experimental aspects of an application of Rydberg atoms to quantum computing are studied. A single neutral atom trapped in an antinode of the optical lattice can represent a quantum bit. Laser excitation of two atoms in neighboring antinodes allows for obtaining of quantum entanglement of the atoms via dipole-dipole interaction which is strong for high Rydberg states. A two-qubit operation could be realized in this way. The optimal values of a principal quantum number, an interatomic distance, time of a single two-qubit operation and other parameters have been estimated. The estimates were done for 23Na and 87Rb atoms. Also experimental results of microwave spectroscopy of a few sodium Rydberg atoms at the one-photon 37S1/2 -> 37P1/2 and two-photon 37S1/2 -> 38S1/2 transitions are presented. Microwave spectroscopy can be used to detect dipole-dipole interaction between a few Rydberg atoms. The calculations showing an influence of dipole-dipole interaction on two-atom spectra are also presented. A noticeable broadening of the five-atom spectrum was observed in the experiment due to the dipole-dipole interaction.
As an important candidate for quantum simulation and quantum computation, a microscopic array of single atoms confined in optical dipole traps is advantageous in controlled interaction, long coherence time, and scalability of providing thousands of qubits in a small footprint of less than 1 mm2. Recently, several breakthroughs have greatly advanced the applications of neutral atom system in quantum simulation and quantum computation, such as atom-by-atom assembling of defect-free arbitrary atomic arrays, single qubit addressing and manipulating in two-dimensional and three-dimensional arrays, extending coherence time of atomic qubits, controlled-NOT (C-NOT) gate based on Rydberg interactions, high fidelity readout, etc.In this paper, the experimental progress of quantum computation based on trapped single neutral atoms is reviewed, along with two contributions done by single atom group in Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics of Chinese Academy of Sciences. First, a magic-intensity trapping technique is developed and used to mitigate the detrimental decoherence effects which are induced by light shift and substantially enhance the coherence time to 225 ms which is 100 times as large as our previous coherence time thus amplifying the ratio between coherence time and single qubit operation time to 105. Second, the difference in resonant frequency between the two atoms of different isotopes is used to avoid crosstalking between individually addressing and manipulating nearby atoms. Based on this heteronuclear single atom system, the heteronuclear C-NOT quantum gate and entanglement of an Rb-85 atom and an Rb-87 atom are demonstrated via Rydberg blockade for the first time. These results will trigger the quests for new protocols and schemes to use the double species for quantum computation with neutral atoms. In the end, the challenge and outlook for further developing the neutral atom system in quantum simulation and quantum computation are also reviewed.
Arrays of qubits encoded in the ground-state manifold of neutral atoms trapped in optical (or magnetic) lattices appear to be a promising platform for the realization of a scalable quantum computer. Two-qubit conditional gates between nearest-neighbor qubits in the array can be implemented by exploiting the Rydberg blockade mechanism, as was shown by D. Jaksch et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2208 (2000)]. However, the energy shift due to dipole-dipole interactions causing the blockade falls off rapidly with the interatomic distance, and protocols based on direct Rydberg blockade typically fail to operate between atoms separated by more than one lattice site. In this work, we propose an extension of the protocol of Jaksch et al. for controlled-Z and controlled-not gates which works in the general case where the qubits are not nearest neighbors in the array. Our proposal relies on the Rydberg excitation hopping along a chain of ancilla noncoding atoms connecting the qubits on which the gate is to be applied. The dependence of the gate fidelity on the number of ancilla atoms, the blockade strength, and the decay rates of the Rydberg states is investigated. A comparison between our implementation of a distant controlled-not gate and one based on a sequence of nearest-neighbor two-qubit gates is also provided.