In quantum computers, the superposition of quantum states is used to perform calculations that are theoretically impossible or infeasible with classical computers, such as solving the traveling salesman problem for many nodes or conducting unstructured searches for large databases. Due to its scalable and flexible nature, neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers are a promising technology for performing quantum computation. Here, qubit configurations are not static, allowing arbitrary geometries to be realized, and schemes where qubits are exchanged are readily available. The quantum level structure of neutral atoms is used to encode a qubit between two states, forming the basis for quantum computing. As the atoms are cooled to their electronic and motional ground states, transitions between qubit zero and qubit one can be driven with high fidelity. A multi-qubit gate is then realized when two or more atoms interact, e.g., by moving them close together, or by increasing their dipole radius when they are excited to a Rydberg state. Up to now, different qubits have been realized in neutral atoms, most notably ⁸⁷Rb, where the electronic ground state splits into two sublevels, which are used as encoding of a qubit. We describe progress on realizing a quantum computer based on ⁸⁸Sr. As a boson, its electronic ground state exhibits no hyperfine splitting, such that SPAM errors can be eliminated. The qubit is encoded in the ground state together with the highly studied, long-lived clock state, allowing for high-fidelity control of the transition. In this thesis, we present how the apparatus creates an ultra-high vacuum, as long-lived atoms are necessary for high-performance quantum algorithms. We show the main ideas behind the laser systems used for cooling, trapping, and driving the single-qubit transition. Our work demonstrates that coherently moving atoms is a feasible operation in quantum computing, allowing for the exchange of qubits, the shuttling of qubits to separate registers, or enabling additional phase gates. The results presented here establish ⁸⁸Sr as a viable candidate for quantum computing and lay the foundation for future fault-tolerant quantum systems.
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.
The power of quantum computation derives from algorithmic methods that exploit the availability of quantum superposition and entanglement to perform computations that are intractable with classical devices. The race is on to develop hardware that will unleash the promise of quantum algorithms. A handful of different types of hardware are currently being developed with the greatest efforts directed at superconducting, quantum-dot, trapped-ion, photonic, and neutral-atom approaches [1]. While all approaches have strengths and weaknesses, and are at different stages of development, the challenge of creating a practical design that can be scaled to a million or more qubits has not yet been met with any of the existing platforms. One may wonder if we really need a million qubits for a useful quantum computer. The answer depends on our ambition level. On the one hand it is widely believed that a quantum computer with less than 100 reliable qubits will be able to demonstrate a quantum advantage for a well defined computational problem [2]. Demonstration of a quantum computational advantage will generate great excitement in the halls of academia, but will have little broader import. A problem of great practical interest such as ab initio design of chemicals for increasing the yield of fertilizers for crop production, to name but one example, may also require just a few hundred qubits, provided computational sequences with circuit depth of 1010 or more operations can be reliably performed [3]. However, given the current performance of qubit hardware, which has demonstrated error rates not less than ∼10−3, computations with depth 1010 will only produce random outcomes of negligible value. The solution lies in the construction of error-correction circuitry operating on logical qubits, each composed of many physical qubits, which will enable logical error rates many orders of magnitude smaller than physical error rates. Although error correction is remarkably efficient for classical computing devices—Hamming codes detect and correct errors while only requiring roughly 10% overhead in the number of physical bits—quantum error correction is notoriously expensive. New approaches to error correction are the subject of intensive research with one promising direction being the development of codes that are optimized to suppress the dominant error mechanism in a particular physical platform [4,5]. Nevertheless, with physical error rates of 10−4, a plausible target for current qubit systems, the overhead required to reach logical error rates of 10−10 may be measured in thousands of physical qubits for each logical qubit. Thus a quantum computer able to perform deep calculations on a few hundred logical qubits could require a million physical qubits. A consequence of the cost of quantum error correction is that any viable approach to large-scale quantum computing needs to combine high-fidelity quantum logic operations with a capability for integrating large numbers of physical qubits. From this perspective neutral-atom qubits appear particularly promising [6] as they have already demonstrated control of more qubits than any other platform with recent experiments in 1D [7], 2D [8,9], and 3D [10] geometries showing control of up to 50 atomic qubits. Large qubit arrays can potentially be prepared in 1D, 2D, or 3D geometries. The number of proximal qubits increases with the dimensionality, which is advantageous for implementation of error correction code words, and points towards a preference for 2D or 3D arrays. On the other hand, the added overhead of compensating crosstalk incurred when targeting atoms inside a 3D volume makes parallel operations on multiple qubits challenging. A 2D geometry, as shown schematically in Fig. 1, may be an optimal choice since qubit control and measurement can be performed with lasers propagating normal to the plane of the array so that individual qubit sites can be addressed independently. With demonstrated array periods of a few micrometers we require a footprint of less than 1 mm2 for 104 qubits. Conceptual picture of a 2D neutral-atom qubit array. a) High-numerical-aperture lenses project several different wavelengths of light for control and measurement of the qubits. Specific choices of optical wavelengths depend on the atomic species. Not shown are optics for initial laser cooling, transport to the array, beam scanning, and imaging for qubit measurement. b) Averaged fluorescence image of 49 atomic qubits on a 2D grid with |
3.8μm| spacing [8]. From a fundamental perspective the prospects for scaling neutral-atom systems are particularly promising due to the exceptionally large ratio between coherent and incoherent coupling rates. Neutral-atom qubits are encoded in hyperfine ground states for which coherence times of the order of 10 s have been demonstrated [10]. This implies a dephasing rate |
γ∼0.1s−1|. The coherent coupling that enables quantum logic operations is switched on by exciting atoms to high-lying Rydberg states with principal quantum number close to 100 [11,12]. Rydberg excited atoms at spacings of a few micrometers in an optical lattice interact coherently with rates |
g>109s−1|. The ratio between desired coherent coupling and residual incoherent dephasing of g/γ ∼ 1010 establishes a figure of merit that is enabling for scalability. To our knowledge only trapped ions can claim a similar g/γ ratio [13], but without a correspondingly direct path towards controlling thousands of qubits in a single processing unit. Although the g/γ ratio is exceptionally favorable for neutral-atom qubits a complete set of universal gate operations has not yet been demonstrated with high fidelity. Single-qubit gates in large 2D and 3D arrays have reached fidelity |
F∼0.999| [8,10]. However, the highest demonstrated fidelity for two-qubit entanglement mediated by Rydberg-state interactions is |
F<0.8| [6,14,15], a value that is well short of the theoretical limit of |
F>0.9999| [16,17]. There is healthy optimism within the research community working with neutral-atom qubits that combining improved laser sources with reduced noise, better cooling to reduce motional dephasing, and control of stray electric fields that perturb Rydberg atoms will lead to substantially improved gate fidelity in the near future. Recent results with better filtering of laser phase noise have already demonstrated remarkable improvement in ground–Rydberg entanglement [18]. The outlook for the next few years appears very promising. We anticipate that with advances in lasers, optical lattices for atom trapping, deterministic rearrangement and loading of atoms in multi-dimensional arrays [19,20], and optics for fast beam scanning it will be possible to increase the number of physical qubits in a single neutral-atom module to at least 104. A challenging yet plausible path to a million-qubit processor can then be contemplated by connecting 100 such modules with atom–photon entanglement channels [21]. Beyond the potential for advancing the state of the art in computation, development of techniques for single-atom control inside large multi-atom arrays will enable other applications of quantum science including metrology and time-keeping. Rydberg interactions that are at the heart of a neutral-atom quantum computer may lead to multi-atom entanglement and Heisenberg scaling of atomic-clock precision [22]. This work was supported by the NSF and ARL CDQI.
Arrays of identical neutral atoms trapped in optical tweezers are a promising candidate for use in quantum computing. These platforms are highly scalable to large numbers of qubits and neutral atoms boost several attractive features as long coherence times and the possibility to be entangled via strong dipole-dipole interactions by driving them to highly excited Rydberg states. \nThe Thesis work is developed inside the framework of the QRydDemo project, whose aim in the next few years is to realize a neutral atom quantum processor with several hundred qubits. The smallest building blocks for the quantum computer are one and two-qubit gates: to entangle two atoms in the quantum register, a controlled-phase (CZ) gate will be implemented by shining fine-tuned laser pulses onto them. In this work, after giving a theoretical description of the Hamiltonian of two neutral atoms in the quantum register, a numerical simulation of this system is exploited to reproduce the behavior of the two-qubit CZ gate. Realistic effects are taken into account as finite temperature, imperfect Rydberg blockade, or decay out of the Rydberg state. A protocol with constant pulses is analyzed and its optimal parameters are found through classical optimizers. Then, time-dependent pulses are introduced and the optimal pulses are found through the optimal control algorithm dCRAB in an open-loop optimization. For the experimental realization of the gate, this analysis is of pivotal importance to know in which aspect more effort has to be put to maximize the experimental precision of the operation and thus improving the performance of the whole device \n
Qubits encoded in the electronic states of single atoms trapped in arrays of optical tweezers are a promising platform for a universal quantum computer. These qubits can be prepared in a well-defined quantum state, coherently manipulated using a nearresonant driving field, and their state detected with high fidelity. The most promising aspect of this platform is the large scalability, with arrays of up to 6100 qubits demonstrated[62].We present our progress in developing such a system with an array of single 85Rbatoms. We provide an overview of the experimental setup constructed for this purpose. Typically 50 atoms are loaded from a MOT into a 10×10 array of optical tweezers with sub-micrometer waists, with only a single atom present in a tweezer. The occupation of the tweezers is determined using a fluorescence image. We provide a characterisation of the trapping potentials experienced by the atoms. This characterisation is performed by measuring properties of the atoms in the tweezers, allowing for an in situ characterisation. In particular, the trap depth and trap frequencies were characterised. The temperature of the atoms after the initial fluorescence image was determined using the release and recapture technique [101] and the trapping lifetime of the atom was measured. With the ability to prepare, manipulate, and read out the electronic state of the atoms, an array of hyperfine qubits has been created. The qubits are encoded in the hyperfine clock states as |0⟩ := 52S1/2 |F = 2,mF = 0⟩ and |1⟩ := 52S1/2 |F = 3,mF = 0⟩. These long-lived first-order Zeeman shift insensitive states exhibit good coherence times, which we have characterized as T1=205 ± 3 ms , T2* = 2.01 ± 0.02 ms, andT2 echo = 67.1 ± 0.1 ms. State preparation is achieved by repetitions of optical and microwave pulses, to which the |0⟩ state is dark, allowing for population to accumulate in this state. The coherent evolution of the qubits have been performed using 3.035 GHz microwave radiation. The antenna used to produce this radiation is a home-built fullwave loop antenna. The antenna has allowed for addressing the qubits with Rabi frequencies up to Ω/2π ≈ 160 kHz. We have implemented the single-qubit Clifford gates using the global microwave drive. We determine using randomized benchmarking an166 Summary average gate fidelity of 0.99949(3), limited by Rabi frequency inhomogeneity over the array. To combat this fidelity limitation, we repeated the randomized benchmarking using the pulse length error robust SCROFULOUS pulses [135], which resulted in an increased gate fidelity of 0.999653(5). As a further extension of the capabilities of the system, we demonstrated a preliminary implementation of addressing a single atom int he array by applying a local Rz rotation to the selected qubit using a Stark shifting laser. The high level of control of the microwave radiation has allowed for an experimental verification of control noise-fidelity relations proposed by [115]. We have found good agreement between the experimentally measured fidelities and the proposed analytical relations developed using the stochastic Schrödinger equation. As a preliminary step towards implementing a two-qubit gate, we have performed coherent excitation of the |1⟩ state to the |r ⟩ :=602S1/2 |mJ = −1/2> Rydberg state using an off-resonant two-photon excitation. The low contrast of the Rabi oscillations on the |1⟩↔|r ⟩ transition was investigated using a simple Lindblad master equation based model. The largest contributors to the reduced contrast is SPAM error, intermediate state scattering and laser phase noise. Since Rydberg atoms interact via the van der Waals interaction, the spacing between atoms must be deterministically controlled. For this purpose, we have used an additional optical tweezer which can be dynamically moved using an acousto-optic deflector to rearrange the stochastically filled array into a desired configuration. By placing 2 atoms a distance ≈ 5 μm apart, we have demonstrated the p2 enhancement of the Rabi oscillation on the |1⟩↔|r ⟩ transition, a required first step towards implementing an entangling gate between the hyperfine qubits. To extend the temperature-limited T2* coherence time, we have implemented Λ-enhanced gray molasses cooling. We have opted to perform this cooling on the D2line as it is experimentally convenient to use this transition. Because using this transition for this purpose has not been reported in this isotope of Rb, we studied the efficacy of this cooling scheme under these circumstances. The reduced excited state hyperfine splitting of 85Rb compared to 87Rb has allowed for the study of the efficacy of this technique in the presence of additional transitions that may inhibit the cooling performance. Despite the challenges of the smaller hyperfine splitting, we have cooled the atoms to4.0±0.2 μK. This additional cooling is partially negated by the heating from the qubit state preparation procedure, but the additional cooling has allowed for the average T2*to be extended from ⟨T2*⟩ = 3.4 ± 0.1 ms to ⟨T2*⟩ = 5.3 ± 0.2 ms.
Efficient quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computing require scalable, high-fidelity long-range connectivity. In neutral-atom quantum computers, this is commonly achieved through atom transport, but shuttling introduces latency and motional heating that worsen with system size. Here, we introduce a neutral-atom architecture based on static atomic buses, in which auxiliary mediator atoms enable long-range entangling operations without qubit transport. The architecture naturally supports long-range stabilizer measurements in high-rate LDPC codes and transversal logical gates between neighboring surface-code patches, enabling a modular framework for efficient logical memories, Clifford computation, and magic-state distillation. To realize these capabilities, we co-design optimal-control protocols for bus-mediated controlled-Z gates that incorporate both microscopic neutral-atom dynamics and architectural constraints. We obtain smooth bus-mediated gates with fidelities approaching 99.9% and durations of a few hundred nanoseconds by combining time-optimal control with interaction-flatness and robustness constraints. Large-scale simulations of quantum error correction and logical entangling operations between neighboring surface-code patches predict more than an order-of-magnitude improvement in logical error rates compared with atom-shuttling architectures under realistic noise. The architecture achieves logical gate times of approximately 100 us and quantum-error-correction cycle times of about 1 ms for code distances d<12. These results establish static atomic buses as a practical alternative to atom shuttling for scalable fault-tolerant neutral-atom quantum computing.
A neutral-atom system serves as a promising platform for realizing gate-based quantum computing because of its capability to trap and control several atomic qubits in different geometries and the ability to perform strong, long-range interactions between qubits; however, the two-qubit entangling gate fidelity lags behind competing platforms such as superconducting systems and trapped ions. The aim of our work is to design a fast, robust, high-fidelity controlled-
Z (cz) gate, based on the Rydberg-blockade mechanism, for neutral atoms. We propose a gate procedure that relies on simultaneous and transitionless quantum driving of a pair of atoms using broadband lasers. By simulating a system of two interacting cesium atoms, including spontaneous emission from excited levels and parameter fluctuations, we yield a Rydberg-blockade cz gate with fidelity 0.9985 over an operation time of $0.12\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{\textmu{}s}$. Our gate procedure delivers cz gates that are superior than the state-of-the-art experimental cz gate and the simulated cz gates based on adiabatic driving of atoms. Our results show that our gate procedure carries significant potential for achieving scalable quantum computing using neutral atoms.