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arXiv:1706.00264 · Physical Review Letters

Fast Nondestructive Parallel Readout of Neutral Atom Registers in Optical Potentials

Miguel Martinez-Dorantes, Wolfgang Alt, J. Gallego, Sutapa Ghosh, Lothar Ratschbacher, Yannik Völzke, Dieter Meschede

Published Oct 30, 2017• 64 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We demonstrate the parallel and nondestructive readout of the hyperfine state for optically trapped ^{87}Rb atoms. The scheme is based on state-selective fluorescence imaging and achieves detection fidelities >98% within 10 ms, while keeping 99% of the atoms trapped. For the readout of dense arrays of neutral atoms in optical lattices, where the fluorescence images of neighboring atoms overlap, we apply a novel image analysis technique using Bayesian inference to determine the internal state of multiple atoms. Our method is scalable to large neutral atom registers relevant for future quantum information processing tasks requiring fast and nondestructive readout and can also be used for the simultaneous readout of quantum information stored in internal qubit states and in the atoms' positions.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.119.180503

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We demonstrate the parallel and nondestructive readout of the hyperfine state for optically trapped ^{87}Rb atoms. The scheme is based on state-selective fluorescence imaging and achieves detection fidelities >98% within 10 ms, while keeping 99% of the atoms trapped. For the readout of dense arrays of neutral atoms in optical lattices, where the fluorescence images of neighboring atoms overlap, we apply a novel image analysis technique using Bayesian inference to determine the internal state of multiple atoms. Our method is scalable to large neutral atom registers relevant for future quantum information processing tasks requiring fast and nondestructive readout and can also be used for the simultaneous readout of quantum information stored in internal qubit states and in the atoms' positions.
Neutral atoms trapped in optical lattices are promising candidates for quantum information processing and quantum simulation. Over the last decades, elegant tools for the manipulation of the internal and external states of optically trapped atoms have been developed. The crucial capability of scalable internal state readout in these systems, however, still relies on destructive methods. In spite of the important role of near-resonant illumination for the manipulation and detection of atoms in the lattice, there also exists a significant lack of studies on the heating and cooling dynamics of optically trapped atoms interacting with near-resonant light. An in-depth understanding of the heating and cooling processes is essential to finding the conditions of illumination that enable the non-destructive internal state readout of multiple atoms. This work presents an experimental system to cool, trap, manipulate, and detect the internal and external states of a small ensemble of 87Rb neutral atoms trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice. A high photon detection efficiency in our experimental system allows for fast fluorescence imaging with acquisition times of 20 ms and fast position determination of atoms in the optical lattice with an accuracy of ∼ 40 nm. Using this experimental system, we investigate the heating dynamics of a neutral atom trapped in a standing wave dipole trap illuminated by a single near-resonant laser beam. A theoretical description to describe our measurements is provided in two experimentally relevant regimes. First, we consider the case of a weak near-resonant beam and later the case of off-resonant illumination. From this analysis, we find settings for the illumination light which allows an atom to scatter many photons before it is expelled from the trap. Building on these results we demonstrate simultaneous, non-destructive determination of the internal state of spatially resolved atoms trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice with a fidelity of 98.6 ± 0.2% and a survival probability of 99.0 ± 0.2%. During the readout process, less than 2% of the atoms change their initial ground state. In order to determine the state of atoms that are not spatially resolved, a novel image analysis technique is presented. The technique uses Bayesian methods, which include the statistics of the detected photons as well as the response from the EMCCD camera. The Bayesian method is implemented on experimental data for atoms trapped in a one-dimensional optical lattice and its accuracy is tested by numerical simulations. In addition, an extension of this algorithm for atoms trapped in two-dimensional lattices is provided. Finally, the non-destructive state detection method is utilized as a tool for the state determination following the coherent control of the internal and external states of atoms in the optical trap. Here Raman sideband cooling is implemented and utilized in an atomic compression sequence for the creation of a small and dense atomic ensemble. These techniques will play an important role in experiments studying the collective light interaction of the atomic ensemble in a recently added optical fiber cavity.
Simultaneous measurement of multiple qubits stored in hyperfine levels of trapped 111Cd+ ions is realized with an intensified charge-coupled device (CCD) imager. A general theory of fluorescence detection for hyperfine qubits is presented and applied to experimental data. The use of an imager for photon detection allows for multiple qubit state measurement with detection fidelities of greater than 98%. Improvements in readout speed and fidelity are discussed in the context of scalable quantum computation architectures.
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Quantum state readout with minimal resources is crucial for scalable quantum information processing. As a leading platform, neutral atom arrays rely on atomic fluorescence imaging for qubit readout, requiring short exposure, low photon count schemes to mitigate heating and atom loss while enabling mid-circuit feedback. However, a fundamental challenge arises in the single-photon regime where severe overlap in state distributions causes conventional threshold discrimination to fail. Here, we report an AI-accelerated Bayesian inference method for fluorescence readout in neutral atom arrays. Our approach leverages Bayesian inference to achieve reliable state detection at the single-photon level under short exposure. Specifically, we introduce a weakly anchored Bayesian scheme that requires calibration of only one state, addressing asymmetric calibration challenges common across quantum platforms. Furthermore, acceleration is achieved via a permutation-invariant neural network, which yields a 100-fold speedup by compressing iterative inference into a single forward pass. The approach achieves relative readout fidelity above 99% and 98% for histogram overlaps of 61% and 72%, respectively, enabling reliable extraction of Rabi oscillations and Ramsey interference results unattainable with conventional threshold based methods. This framework supports scalable, real-time readout of large atom arrays and paves the way toward AI-enhanced quantum technology in computation and sensing.
We achieve fast, nondestructive quantum-state readout via fluorescence detection of a single 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atom in the 5S1/25{S}_{1/2}5S1/2​ (F=2)(F=2)(F=2) ground state held in an optical dipole trap. The atom is driven by linearly polarized readout laser beams, making the scheme insensitive to the distribution of atomic population in magnetic sublevels. We demonstrate a readout fidelity of $97.6\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2%$ in a readout time of $160\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}20\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{s}$ with the atom retained in >97>97%>97 of the trials, representing an advancement over other magnetic-state-insensitive techniques. We demonstrate that the F=2F=2F=2 state is partially protected from optical pumping by the distribution of the dipole matrix elements for the various transitions and the ac-Stark shifts from the optical trap. Our results are likely to find application in neutral-atom quantum computing and simulation.
Neutral-atom arrays have rapidly advanced to support thousands of qubits and execute high-fidelity logical operations. However, these processors remain severely throttled by their slowest fundamental operation: nondestructive qubit measurement, which requires milliseconds and fundamentally limits the system's clock rate. This bottleneck arises from both an inherent photon-budget dilemma---sufficient fluorescence for reliable state discrimination must be collected without excessive heating or loss---and frame-based imaging, which imposes one common exposure and decision latency on intrinsically independent, site-local measurements. Here, we overcome these limitations with a fast, nondestructive readout architecture based on real-time, site-resolved adaptive protection. By integrating continuous photon counting with a dynamic feedforward framework, we decode qubit states with sub-microsecond latency and instantly shield atoms from redundant scattering. Demonstrated in parallel across a 100-qubit reconfigurable atom array, with adaptive protection on a 25-site subarray, this dynamic decision protocol reduces the average probe time to just 15 μs15\ μ\text{s}15 μs. Model-free benchmarking yields a discrimination infidelity of 4.1×10−54.1 \times 10^{-5}4.1×10−5 and an atom loss of 2.1×10−42.1 \times 10^{-4}2.1×10−4, simultaneously setting new performance records for atom arrays. Exploiting this capability, we operate repeated quantum circuits at an unprecedented 1.7 kHz clock rate with atoms reused over 120 consecutive rounds---nearly sevenfold higher than the previous record---and enter the sub-millisecond cycle regime for the first time. By removing nondestructive readout as the dominant cycle-time bottleneck, this work unlocks high-clock-rate mid-circuit syndrome extraction, paving the way for high-throughput, fault-tolerant quantum computation.