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Nature Communications

Chip scale coil stabilized Brillouin laser driving a room temperature trapped ion qubit

Nitesh Chauhan, Christopher Caron, Andrei Isichenko, Meiting Song, Zhenyu Wei, Nishat Helaly, Kaikai Liu, Jiawei Wang, Robert Niffenegger, Daniel J. Blumenthal

Published Mar 3, 2026• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Photonic integrated stable, ultra-low-noise lasers are essential for scalable and portable quantum information systems. Trapped ions are a leading modality for quantum computing and optical clocks, with room-temperature operation enabling portable applications. Current systems rely on free-space lasers and stabilization cavities, frequency conversion, and cryogenic infrastructure, limiting size, weight, and power. We demonstrate a chip-scale coil-stabilized 674 nm Brillouin laser driving qubit state preparation and measurement and the optical clock transition in a room-temperature surface electrode trapped 88 Sr + ion without a bulk-optic reference cavity. The CMOS compatible silicon nitride integrated 3-meter coil and Brillouin laser achieve 8.8×10 -13 stability at 20 ms, sufficient to interrogate the 0.4 Hz quadrupole optical clock transition. The ion-disciplined laser achieves 5.3 $$\times {10}^{-13}/\sqrt{\tau }$$ × 10 − 13 / τ stability, spectroscopy with 1.5 kHz linewidths, and 99.6% qubit state preparation and measurement fidelity. These results light the way towards integration of stabilized lasers with trapped-ion chips for portable and robust quantum technologies.

DOI
10.1038/s41467-026-69948-2

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Abstract Photonic integrated stable, ultra-low-noise lasers are essential for scalable and portable quantum information systems. Trapped ions are a leading modality for quantum computing and optical clocks, with room-temperature operation enabling portable applications. Current systems rely on free-space lasers and stabilization cavities, frequency conversion, and cryogenic infrastructure, limiting size, weight, and power. We demonstrate a chip-scale coil-stabilized 674 nm Brillouin laser driving qubit state preparation and measurement and the optical clock transition in a room-temperature surface electrode trapped 88 Sr + ion without a bulk-optic reference cavity. The CMOS compatible silicon nitride integrated 3-meter coil and Brillouin laser achieve 8.8×10 -13 stability at 20 ms, sufficient to interrogate the 0.4 Hz quadrupole optical clock transition. The ion-disciplined laser achieves 5.3 ×10−13/τ\times {10}^{-13}/\sqrt{\tau }×10−13/τ​ × 10 − 13 / τ stability, spectroscopy with 1.5 kHz linewidths, and 99.6% qubit state preparation and measurement fidelity. These results light the way towards integration of stabilized lasers with trapped-ion chips for portable and robust quantum technologies.
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Trapped ions are a leading technology for quantum computing, but their reliance on bespoke tabletop laser and optical systems remains a major obstacle to scaling and robustness. Integrated silicon nitride lasers, compatible with future monolithic integration with surface electrode ion traps, have recently demonstrated frequency-selective qubit state preparation and measurement as well as interrogation of an optical clock transition. However, coherent qubit gates impose even more stringent requirements on laser phase noise, and their implementation with integrated laser sources has remained an outstanding challenge. Here, we use a visible-wavelength integrated Brillouin laser stabilized to an integrated coil resonator to drive coherent single- and two-qubit gates with \Sr optical qubits. We measure an average single-qubit fidelity of 99.61%±0.03%99.61\%\pm 0.03\%99.61%±0.03% per Clifford gate with randomized benchmarking and use a two-qubit Mølmer-Sørensen interaction to generate an entangled Bell state with a fidelity of 92.35%±1.50%92.35\% \pm 1.50\%92.35%±1.50%. The qubit exhibits a bare Ramsey coherence time of 659±9 μ659 \pm 9~μ659±9 μs, more than a tenfold improvement over our previous implementation, which extends to 1.750±0.0331.750 \pm 0.0331.750±0.033~ms with an echo. These results demonstrate, for the first time, that integrated visible-wavelength narrow-linewidth photonic lasers can meet the phase-noise requirements for coherent quantum logic with trapped ion optical qubits, providing a path for scalable optical systems integrated within trapped ion quantum processors.
Monolithic integration of control technologies for atomic systems presents a promising route to the development of quantum computers and portable quantum sensors. Trapped atomic ions form the basis of high-fidelity quantum information processors and high-accuracy optical clocks, but currently rely on free-space optics for ion control, limiting portability and scalability. Here we demonstrate a surface-electrode ion trap which delivers all wavelengths required for ionization, cooling, coherent operations, and quantum-state preparation and detection of Sr+^{+}+ qubits using integrated waveguides and grating couplers. Laser light from the violet to the infrared is coupled onto the chip via an optical-fiber array, creating an inherently stable optical path that we use to demonstrate qubit coherence resilient to platform vibrations. This demonstration of CMOS-compatible integrated-photonic surface-trap fabrication, robust packaging, and enhanced qubit coherence represents a key advance in the development of portable trapped-ion quantum sensors and clocks, and it lights the way toward the complete, individual control of larger numbers of ions in quantum information processing systems.
Abstract Monolithic integration of control technologies for atomic systems is a promising route to the development of quantum computers and portable quantum sensors1–4. Trapped atomic ions form the basis of high-fidelity quantum information processors5, 6 and high-accuracy optical clocks7. However, current implementations rely on free-space optics for ion control, which limits their portability and scalability. Here we demonstrate a surface-electrode ion-trap chip8, 9 using integrated waveguides and grating couplers, which delivers all the wavelengths of light required for ionization, cooling, coherent operations and quantum state preparation and detection of Sr+ qubits. Laser light from violet to infrared is coupled onto the chip via an optical-fibre array, creating an inherently stable optical path, which we use to demonstrate qubit coherence that is resilient to platform vibrations. This demonstration of CMOS-compatible integrated photonic surface-trap fabrication, robust packaging and enhanced qubit coherence is a key advance in the development of portable trapped-ion quantum sensors and clocks, providing a way towards the complete, individual control of larger numbers of ions in quantum information processing systems.
Integrated photonics in trapped-ion systems are critical for the realization of applications such as portable optical atomic clocks and scalable quantum computers. However, system-level integration of all required functionalities remains a key challenge. In this work, we demonstrate an autonomously operating optical clock having a short-term frequency instability of 3.14(5)×10−14/τ3.14(5)\times 10^{-14} / \sqrtτ3.14(5)×10−14/τ​ using an ensemble of four 171Yb+^{171}\textrm{Yb}^{+}171Yb+ ions trapped in a multi-site surface-electrode trap at room temperature. All clock operations are performed with light delivered via on-chip waveguides. We showcase the system's resilience through sustained, autonomous operation featuring automated ion shuttling and reloading to mitigate ion loss during interleaved clock measurements. This work paves the way beyond component-level functionality to establish a viable and robust architecture for the next generation of portable, multi-ion quantum sensors and computers.