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arXiv:2510.09398

Acousto-optic lens for 3D shuttling of atoms in a neutral atom quantum computer

Z. J. Guo, Rik van Herk, Edgar J. D. Vredenbregt, S. J. J. M. F. Kokkelmans

Published Oct 10, 2025• 1 citation
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Abstract

We present a novel acousto-optic lens (AOL) design for neutral atom quantum computing. This approach enhances atom rearrangement in optical tweezer arrays and addresses the speed limitations imposed by the cylindrical lensing effect of acousto-optic deflectors (AODs). By combining a double-pass AOD configuration for dynamic focal tuning with a standard pair of crossed AODs for transverse beam steering, our design enables the generation of arbitrary focal point trajectories. This configuration enables shuttling of atoms in 3D space, thereby helping to realise fully connected two-qubit gates and mid-circuit measurements. We detail the optical implementation, characterize its performance, and discuss its applications in scalable quantum computing architectures.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2510.09398

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We present a novel acousto-optic lens (AOL) design for neutral atom quantum computing. This approach enhances atom rearrangement in optical tweezer arrays and addresses the speed limitations imposed by the cylindrical lensing effect of acousto-optic deflectors (AODs). By combining a double-pass AOD configuration for dynamic focal tuning with a standard pair of crossed AODs for transverse beam steering, our design enables the generation of arbitrary focal point trajectories. This configuration enables shuttling of atoms in 3D space, thereby helping to realise fully connected two-qubit gates and mid-circuit measurements. We detail the optical implementation, characterize its performance, and discuss its applications in scalable quantum computing architectures.
Reconfigurable arrays of neutral atoms are a leading platform for quantum computing, quantum simulation, and quantum metrology. The most common method for atom reconfiguration using optical tweezers relies on frequency chirping of acousto-optic deflectors (AODs). However, chirp-induced acoustic lensing limits the speed of atom transport by deformation of the tweezer profile and warping of the tweezer trajectory. We use a three-dimensional acousto-optic deflector lens (3D-AODL) to mitigate both effects, a design predicted to halve current state-of-the-art long-range transport times. Additionally, we introduce fading-Shepard waveforms that bypass the finite AOD bandwidth and thus enable sustained axial displacement. We demonstrate unrestricted 3D motion within a cuboid volume of at least 200 μm × 200 μm × 136 μm, with tweezer velocities exceeding 4.2 m/s. The ability to move optical tweezers along arbitrary trajectories in 3D should enable rapid in-plane and out-of-plane rearrangement of atoms in 2D or 3D tweezer arrays and optical lattices, as well as omnidirectional trajectories and dynamical engineering of optical potentials. This technology has the potential to advance quantum control and atom manipulation in current atom-array quantum computers, boosting clock rates and enabling rapid sorting in geometries scalable to millions of qubits.
Neutral-atom quantum computers offer arbitrary connectivity enabled by atom transport. Some logical operations can then be simplified or reduced entirely to geometric rearrangements of the atoms. Minimizing the duration of these movements is therefore essential for high logical throughput. We introduce new primitives to shear, rotate and reflect 2D arrays of atoms in a static lattice using sweeps of a single dynamic crossed acousto-optic deflector (AOD) pair. Using (nega-)binary and geometric decompositions, we achieve an AOD stroke count scaling logarithmically in the linear size of the array. In one example, we use the Paeth decomposition to implement a 90∘90^{\circ}90∘ rotation for a transversal Hadamard gate in a rotated surface code of distance ddd in 3⌊log⁡2(d−1)⌋+43\lfloor\log_2(d-1)\rfloor + 43⌊log2​(d−1)⌋+4 AOD strokes and O(d1/3)O(d^{1/3})O(d1/3) constant-jerk time, against O(d2)O(d^2)O(d2) strokes and O(d7/3)O(d^{7/3})O(d7/3) time for atom-by-atom rearrangement.
We present an optical design concept to create a two-dimensional tweezer array for neutral atom quantum computing. The first part of the setup splits the four input laser beams into 20 individual beam lines that correspond to the columns of the tweezer array. A combination of an acousto-optic deflector (AOD) and a suitable imaging lens for each beam line creates a magnified image of the one-dimensional columns in the tweezer array with a spacing of less than 200 μm. The spacing between the 20 columns is reduced to this value as well to achieve a spot array with an equidistant spacing in both axes. This is done successively in four steps by using a combination of one discrete mirror cascade and three mirror cascades integrated into monolithic mirror arrays. The final tweezer array with a spacing of 3.5 μm is then created by a two-stage telecentric demagnifying lens group. Unlike other approaches to create a two-dimensional tweezer array (e.g. crossed AODs), the use of a separate AOD for each column allows for an independent adjustment of the spacings within each column and thus a flexible adjustment of the local interaction of neighboring atoms. A raytracing analysis demonstrates that the whole setup produces a telecentric and diffraction-limited image of 20 × 100 spots in the following vacuum chamber.
Current architectures for neutral-atom arrays utilize devices such as acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) and spatial light modulators (SLMs) to multiplex a single classical control line into N qubit control lines. Dynamic control is speed-limited by the response time of AODs, and geometrically constrained to respect a product structure, limiting motion to row-by-row or column-by-column moves. We propose an optical rastering device that can produce any 2D pattern, not limited to grids, at 1 MHz refresh rates. We demonstrate a design with a resolution of 40 x 40 that can be further scaled up to 100 x 100 to match existing and future neutral atom devices. The ability to simultaneously transport atomic qubits in arbitrary directions will enhance qubit connectivity, enable more efficient circuits, and may have broader applications ranging from LiDAR to fluorescence microscopy.
Current architectures for neutral-atom arrays use devices such as acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) and spatial light modulators (SLMs) to multiplex a single classical control line into N qubit control lines. Dynamic control is speed-limited by the response time of AODs, and geometrically constrained to respect a product structure, limiting motion to row-by-row or column-by-column moves. We propose an optical rastering device that can produce any 2D pattern, not limited to grids, at 1 MHz refresh rates. We demonstrate a design with a resolution of 40 × 40 that can be further scaled up to 100 × 100 to match existing and future neutral atom devices. The ability to simultaneously transport atomic qubits in arbitrary directions will enhance qubit connectivity and enable more efficient circuits and may have broader applications ranging from LiDAR to fluorescence microscopy.
We present a compact design for a beam-steering system based on acousto-optic-deflectors (AODs) used as an individual addressing system for trapped-ion quantum computing. The design targets to minimize the optomechanical degrees of freedom and the optical beam paths to improve optical stability, and we successfully implemented a solution with a compact footprint of less than 1 square foot. The system characterization results show that we achieve clean Gaussian beams at 355nm wavelength with a beam steering range of $\sim$50 times the beam diameter, and an intensity crosstalk of <9×10−4< 9 \times 10^{-4}<9×10−4 at all neighboring ions in a five-ion chain. Based on these capabilities, we experimentally demonstrate individual addressing of a 30-ion chain. We estimate the beam switching time of the AOD to be $\sim$240 ns. The compact system design is expected to provide high optical stability, providing the potential for high-fidelity trapped-ion quantum computing with long ion chains.