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arXiv:2602.16025

Device for MHz-rate rastering of arbitrary 2D optical potentials

Edita Bytyqi, Josiah Sinclair, Joshua Ramette, Vladan Vuletić

quant-phSubmitted Feb 17, 2026• Announced Feb 19, 2026• 1 citation
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Abstract

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.

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Device for MHz-rate rastering of arbitrary 2D optical potentials

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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.

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Multiscale architecture for fast optical addressing and control of large-scale qubit arrays

Trent Graham, E. Oh, Mark E. Saffman

This paper presents a technique for rapid site-selective control of the quantum state of particles in a large array using the combination of a fast deflector (e.g., an acousto-optic deflector) and a relatively slow spatial light modulator (SLM). The use of SLMs for site-selective quantum state manipulation has been limited due to slow transition times that prevent rapid, consecutive quantum gates. By partitioning the SLM into multiple segments and using a fast deflector to transition between them, it is possible to substantially reduce the average time increment between scanner transitions by increasing the number of gates that can be performed for a single SLM full-frame setting. We analyzed the performance of this device in two different configurations: In configuration 1, each SLM segment addresses the full qubit array; in configuration 2, each SLM segment addresses a subarray and an additional fast deflector positions that subarray with respect to the full qubit array. With these hybrid scanners, we calculated qubit addressing rates that are tens to hundreds of times faster than using an SLM alone.

arXiv:2212.12428•Applied Optics•Mar 20, 2023•13 citations
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.
Rapid and programmable shaping of light fields is central to modern microscopy, display technologies, optical communications and sensing, quantum engineering, and quantum information processing. Current wavefront shaping technologies face a fundamental dichotomy: liquid-crystal-on-silicon spatial light modulators (LCoS-SLMs) offer high pixel count but suffer from low refresh rates, while acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) provide moderate speed with restricted optical beam geometries. Though recent advances in photonic integrated circuits achieve fast switching, there is currently no tool that provides MHz-rate, continuous motion, and arbitrarily reconfigurable control over a set of diffraction-limited spots. Here we introduce a new class of spatial light modulator that provides both 2D pixel geometry and high speed. The device operates by encoding spatial information in frequency bins via a broadband optical phase modulator, and decoding them via a first-of-its-kind, high-resolution 2D spectrometer. The spectrometer, based on the architecture which we call the Re-Imaging Phased Array (RIPA), achieves its sensitivity through long path-lengths, enabled by intra-spectrometer re-imaging lens-guides. We demonstrate site-resolved optical pulsing with a 44(1)~ns rise time, corresponding to frame rates exceeding 10 million frames per second, as well as arbitrary, reconfigurable 2D addressing and multi-site operations, including asynchronous, independent beam motion, splitting, and recombination. Leveraging these tools opens new horizons in rapid optical manipulation of matter across science, from fast, scalable control that approaches the inertial and radiation limits of atoms in quantum processors, to dynamically programmable, microsecond-resolved illumination in microscopy and neuro-biological imaging.
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.
Programmable arrays of ultracold atoms are a leading platform for quantum computation and simulation, enabling state-of-the-art implementations of quantum error correction, and analog simulations of Hubbard models that address open problems in condensed matter physics. In these systems, all local control is mediated through precisely shaped optical fields, and so the challenge of managing many-body quantum states becomes an exercise in optical design. In particular, one wishes for fast, flexible control with low disorder and heating, and access to large arrays with many atoms. An ideal optical system therefore must generate arbitrary patterns with high spatial resolution and low disorder, and alter these patterns on a timescale that is faster than the relevant atomic dynamics. Here, we present an optical system that is comparable to previous approaches in scale, while advancing all other axes. We demonstrate arbitrary pattern generation with 10−310^{-3}10−3 intensity resolution, a frame rate of >84>84>84 MFPS (megaframes per second), and a spatial resolution of 83×5283 \times 5283×52 beam waists (with 11×5211 \times 5211×52 waists accessible via a single 404040 GHz electro-optic modulator). These capabilities unlock a new class of experiments. We develop and numerically validate a scheme for fully programmable Hubbard models, with time-dependent control over local chemical potentials, tunneling amplitudes, on-site interactions, and patterns of artificial magnetic flux. The same architecture performs fast, arbitrary permutations of tweezers in 2D, decoupling optical constraints from the design of high-rate error-correcting codes.
This paper presents a technique for rapid site-selective control of the quantum state of particles in a large array using the combination of a fast deflector (e.g., an acousto-optic deflector) and a relatively slow spatial light modulator (SLM). The use of SLMs for site-selective quantum state manipulation has been limited due to slow transition times that prevent rapid, consecutive quantum gates. By partitioning the SLM into multiple segments and using a fast deflector to transition between them, it is possible to substantially reduce the average time increment between scanner transitions by increasing the number of gates that can be performed for a single SLM full-frame setting. We analyzed the performance of this device in two different configurations: In configuration 1, each SLM segment addresses the full qubit array; in configuration 2, each SLM segment addresses a subarray and an additional fast deflector positions that subarray with respect to the full qubit array. With these hybrid scanners, we calculated qubit addressing rates that are tens to hundreds of times faster than using an SLM alone.