Neutral atom arrays have emerged as a leading platform for scalable quantum information processing, offering reconfigurable geometry, strong interactions, and high-fidelity control. While encoding quantum information in atomic qubits provides multiple natural advantages, information can be lost through mechanisms such as atom loss, depolarization, and decoherence, necessitating the need for quantum error correction. However, the processes underlying error correction, including measurement and gate operations, can themselves induce atom loss, ultimately limiting the achievable computational circuit depth. This thesis presents the design and realization of a large-scale neutral atom array quantum architecture capable of continuous coherent operation. By replenishing fresh atomic qubits during operation, the system solves a key bottleneck to scalability in space and time. We further show that, through careful system design, quantum coherence can be preserved while introducing new atoms and initializing them as qubits. We discuss the architectural and physical considerations underlying this approach and demonstrate a platform comprising more than 3,000 reconfigurable qubits. These results establish a pathway toward persistent quantum operation and have broad implications for quantum computing, quantum simulation, and quantum metrology.
Neutral atom arrays have emerged as a leading platform for scalable quantum information processing, offering reconfigurable geometry, strong interactions, and high-fidelity control. While encoding quantum information in atomic qubits provides multiple natural advantages, information can be lost through mechanisms such as atom loss, depolarization, and decoherence, necessitating the need for quantum error correction. However, the processes underlying error correction, including measurement and gate operations, can themselves induce atom loss, ultimately limiting the achievable computational circuit depth. This thesis presents the design and realization of a large-scale neutral atom array quantum architecture capable of continuous coherent operation. By replenishing fresh atomic qubits during operation, the system solves a key bottleneck to scalability in space and time. We further show that, through careful system design, quantum coherence can be preserved while introducing new atoms and initializing them as qubits. We discuss the architectural and physical considerations underlying this approach and demonstrate a platform comprising more than 3,000 reconfigurable qubits. These results establish a pathway toward persistent quantum operation and have broad implications for quantum computing, quantum simulation, and quantum metrology.
Quantum computers open new scientific avenues, from exploring complex quantum mechanical systems to new computational paradigms, but face the fundamental challenge of decoherence. Remarkably, decoherence can be prevented by creating highly entangled states of physical qubits that encode an error-corrected “logical” qubit. This thesis will describe the development of quantum computing with reconfigurable arrays of neutral atoms and their use for quantum processing with logical qubits. Quantum processing in this approach is based on the coherent transport of atoms shuttled by optical tweezers, enabling any-to-any connectivity, high-fidelity programmable logic, and mid-circuit processing within a zoned architecture. Logical qubit processing is greatly facilitated by parallel control and transversal operations, and is used for experiments ranging from entangling logical qubits to their use for precise simulation of quantum scrambling. Core physical mechanisms for achieving deep-circuit, universal algorithms with logical qubits are identified, and these are leveraged into new techniques that greatly reduce overheads for large-scale computation. Finally, applications of quantum processors will be explored via analog and gate-based quantum simulations. These results, alongside other recent advances, herald a transition to error-corrected quantum processing, establishing foundations that can enable future large-scale quantum computers and their useful applications.
Neutral-atom arrays are a leading platform for quantum technologies, offering a promising route toward large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computing. We propose a novel quantum processing architecture based on dual-type, dual-element atom arrays, where individually trapped atoms serve as data qubits, and small atomic ensembles enable ancillary operations. By leveraging the selective initialization, coherent control, and collective optical response of atomic ensembles, we demonstrate ensemble-assisted quantum operations that enable reconfigurable, high-speed control of individual data qubits and rapid mid-circuit readout, including both projective single-qubit and joint multi-qubit measurements. The hybrid approach of this architecture combines the long coherence times of single-atom qubits with the enhanced controllability of atomic ensembles, achieving high-fidelity state manipulation and detection with minimal crosstalk. Numerical simulations indicate that our scheme supports individually addressable single- and multi-qubit operations with fidelities of 99.5% and 99.9%, respectively, as well as fast single- and multi-qubit state readout with fidelities exceeding 99% within tens of microseconds. These capabilities open new pathways toward scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computation, enabling repetitive error syndrome detection and efficient generation of long-range entangled many-body states, thereby expanding the quantum information toolbox beyond existing platforms.
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.
Neutral atoms are a promising platform for quantum science, enabling advances in areas ranging from quantum simulations 1−3 and computation 4−10 to metrology, atomic clocks 11−13 and quantum networking 14−16 . While atom losses typically limit these systems to a pulsed mode, continuous operation 17−22 could significantly enhance cycle rates, remove bottlenecks in metrology 23 , and enable deep-circuit quantum evolution through quantum error correction 24,25 . Here we demonstrate an experimental architecture for high-rate reloading and continuous operation of a large-scale atom array system while realizing coherent storage and manipulation of quantum information. Our approach utilizes a series of two optical lattice conveyor belts to transport atom reservoirs into the science region, where atoms are repeatedly extracted into optical tweezers without affecting the coherence of qubits stored nearby. Using a reloading rate of 300,000 atoms in tweezers per second, we create over 30,000 initialized qubits per second, which we leverage to assemble and maintain an array of over 3,000 atoms for more than two hours. Furthermore, we demonstrate persistent refilling of the array with atomic qubits in either a spin-polarized or a coherent superposition state while preserving the quantum state of stored qubits. Our results pave the way for realization of large-scale continuously operated atomic clocks, sensors, and fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Quantum computers hold a promise to solve certain problems that are intractable to classical computers, offering a paradigm shift in fields ranging from cryptography to materials science. However, realizing this potential requires overcoming the challenge of scalability, which encompasses both spatial scalability – the capacity for large qubit registers, and temporal scalability – the capability to execute deep quantum circuits. This thesis describes the construction and experimental characterization of a new rubidium atom array quantum platform, which advances the scalability frontier of atomic quantum processors in both spatial and temporal domains. The platform achieves a record-scale ∼ 99%-filling-fraction array with more than 3,000 qubits, and is shown to operate continuously for more than 2 hours. These advances are enabled by a novel architecture that supports high-flux refilling of atomic qubits without decohering neighboring sites. Combined with other recent progress demonstrated in the field of neutral atom quantum information processing, this platform provides a viable pathway toward large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum processing capable of executing deep error-corrected circuits.
Abstract The ability to perform entangling quantum operations with low error rates in a scalable fashion is a central element of useful quantum information processing 1 . Neutral-atom arrays have recently emerged as a promising quantum computing platform, featuring coherent control over hundreds of qubits 2,3 and any-to-any gate connectivity in a flexible, dynamically reconfigurable architecture 4 . The main outstanding challenge has been to reduce errors in entangling operations mediated through Rydberg interactions 5 . Here we report the realization of two-qubit entangling gates with 99.5% fidelity on up to 60 atoms in parallel, surpassing the surface-code threshold for error correction 6,7 . Our method uses fast, single-pulse gates based on optimal control 8 , atomic dark states to reduce scattering 9 and improvements to Rydberg excitation and atom cooling. We benchmark fidelity using several methods based on repeated gate applications 10,11 , characterize the physical error sources and outline future improvements. Finally, we generalize our method to design entangling gates involving a higher number of qubits, which we demonstrate by realizing low-error three-qubit gates 12,13 . By enabling high-fidelity operation in a scalable, highly connected system, these advances lay the groundwork for large-scale implementation of quantum algorithms 14 , error-corrected circuits 7 and digital simulations 15 .