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A modular and compact trapped ion quantum computer

Christopher Caron, Nishat Helaly, Zhenyu Wei, Robert Niffenegger

Published Jan 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a compact and modular trapped ion quantum computer based on modular optical baseplates and subsystems created using a beam-path based optical layout tool, PyOpticL. These same baseplates and subsystems have direct applications to all AMO experiments including neutral atom quantum computers.
DOI
10.1364/cleo_at.2025.jps200_186

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Complex optical design is hindered by conventional piecewise setup, which prevents modularization and therefore abstraction of subsystems at the circuit level. This limits multiple fields that require complex optics systems, including quantum computing with atoms and trapped ions, because their optical systems are not scalable. We present an open-source Python library for optical layout (PyOpticL) which uses beam-path simulation and dynamic beam-path routing for quick and easy optical layout by placing optical elements along the beam path without a priori specification, enabling adaptive, path-based layouts with automatic routing and connectivity. We use PyOpticL to create modular `drop-in' optical baseplates for common optical subsystems used in atomic and molecular optics (AMO) experiments including laser sources, frequency and intensity modulation, and locking to an atomic reference for stabilization. We demonstrate this minimal working example of a dynamic full laser system for strontium trapped ions by using it for laser cooling, qubit state detection, and over 99% fidelity single-qubit gates with 3D printed baseplates. This enables a new paradigm of design abstraction layers for engineering optical systems leveraging modular baseplates, as they can be used for any wavelength in the system and enables scaling up the underlying optical systems for quantum computers. This new open-source hardware and software code-to-CAD library seeks to foster open-source collaborative hardware and systems design across numerous fields of research including AMO physics and quantum computing with neutral atoms and trapped ions.
Robust laser delivery and stabilization are key components in atom-based quantum technologies, such as quantum computing. Moving these technologies towards product-like deployment requires scalable, compact, cost-effective, and upgradable modules. Here we describe laser systems consisting of application-flexible modules and demonstrate their performance by characterizing key metrics and by integration with ion trap systems. The laser system is confined to a single server rack and a compact locking station. Both are Class 1 laser products with fiber in-out and electronic control of the laser light. This is achieved through precision manufacture of optical boards that are designed to reduce the degrees of freedom, ease alignment, and increase the robustness to environmental factors. We present a range of 13 wavelengths from 375 nm to 1092 nm: efficiencies from laser source to ion trap range from 21 - 28%, with laser stabilization line widths below 1 MHz.
Quantum computers are a rapidly growing and emerging technology. Trapped ions and neutral atoms are among the modalities being investigated for quantum computers and rely heavily on photonics. Photonics plays an important role in trapped ion and neutral atom quantum computers especially in measuring the atom’s or ion’s fluorescence or lack of fluorescence as the photons that are emitted carry valuable information on their state. This presentation will provide an overview on trapped ion and neutral atom quantum computers. We will also discuss detector and imaging technologies used for qubit state and mid-circuit measurement as well as considerations for the future of detection and imaging for trapped ion and neutral atom quantum computers.
We propose to combine neutral atom and trapped ion qubits in one scalable modular architecture that uses shuttling of individual neutral atoms in optical tweezers to realize atomic interconnects between trapped ion quantum registers. These interconnects are , and thus may be performed . The proposed protocol is as follows: A tweezer-trapped neutral atom qubit is brought close to a trapped ion in an ion chain serving as a module of a larger quantum computer, and an entangling gate is performed between the two qubits. Then, the neutral atom is quickly moved to another, nearby trapped ion chain in the same modular ion trap and entangled with an ion in that chain, thus entangling the two separate ion chains. The optical dipole potential of the tweezer beam for the neutral atom does not measurably affect the trapped ions, while the rf ion trap does not affect the neutral atom. With realistic tweezer trap parameters, the neutral atom can be moved over millimeter-scale distance in a few tens of microseconds, thus enabling a remote entanglement generation rate of over 10 3 s − 1 even with very modest assumptions for the atom-ion quantum gate speed, and possibly up to 10 4 s − 1 , which is two orders of magnitude higher than the current state-of-the-art with photonic interconnects.
In the development of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics, atom-ion hybrid systems are characterized by the presence of a new tool in the experimental AMO toolbox: atom-ion interactions. One of the main limitations in state-of-the-art atom-ion experiments is represented by the micromotion component of the ions’ dynamics in a Paul trap, as the presence of micromotion in atom-ion collisions results in a heating mechanism that prevents atom-ion mixtures from undergoing a coherent evolution. Here, we report the design and the simulation of a novel ion trapping setup especially conceived of for integration with an ultracold atoms experiment. The ion confinement is realized by using an electro-optical trap based on the combination of an optical and an electrostatic field, so that no micromotion component will be present in the ions’ dynamics. The confining optical field is generated by a deep optical lattice created at the crossing of a bow-tie cavity, while a static electric quadrupole ensures the ions’ confinement in the plane orthogonal to the optical lattice. The setup is also equipped with a Paul trap for cooling the ions produced by photoionization of a hot atomic beam, and the design of the two ion traps facilitates the swapping of the ions from the Paul trap to the electro-optical trap.