19 Mar 2024 | Hannah J. Manetsch, Gyohei Nomura, Elie Bataille, Kon H. Leung, Xudong Lv, and Manuel Endres
A team of researchers has developed an optical tweezer array capable of trapping over 6,100 neutral atoms in approximately 12,000 sites, achieving record-breaking performance in several key metrics. This system demonstrates a coherence time of 12.6(1) seconds for hyperfine qubits, a trapping lifetime of nearly 23 minutes in a room-temperature apparatus, and an imaging fidelity of over 99.99%. The array also achieves a high imaging survival probability of 99.98952(1)%, indicating minimal loss during imaging. These results highlight the potential of optical tweezer arrays for large-scale quantum computing, simulation, and metrology, particularly for applications requiring quantum error correction. The system's high-fidelity single-qubit gate fidelity and long coherence times suggest that universal quantum computing with ten thousand atomic qubits could be a near-term prospect. The research also demonstrates the feasibility of quantum simulation and metrology experiments with inherent single-particle readout and positioning capabilities at a similar scale. The optical tweezer array platform is scalable and programmable, enabling the manipulation of individual atoms with high precision. The study addresses key challenges in scaling up quantum computing systems, including maintaining high fidelity and long coherence times. The results have implications for various quantum technologies, including quantum clocks, quantum simulation, and quantum error correction. The research represents a significant step forward in the development of optical tweezer arrays for quantum information processing.A team of researchers has developed an optical tweezer array capable of trapping over 6,100 neutral atoms in approximately 12,000 sites, achieving record-breaking performance in several key metrics. This system demonstrates a coherence time of 12.6(1) seconds for hyperfine qubits, a trapping lifetime of nearly 23 minutes in a room-temperature apparatus, and an imaging fidelity of over 99.99%. The array also achieves a high imaging survival probability of 99.98952(1)%, indicating minimal loss during imaging. These results highlight the potential of optical tweezer arrays for large-scale quantum computing, simulation, and metrology, particularly for applications requiring quantum error correction. The system's high-fidelity single-qubit gate fidelity and long coherence times suggest that universal quantum computing with ten thousand atomic qubits could be a near-term prospect. The research also demonstrates the feasibility of quantum simulation and metrology experiments with inherent single-particle readout and positioning capabilities at a similar scale. The optical tweezer array platform is scalable and programmable, enabling the manipulation of individual atoms with high precision. The study addresses key challenges in scaling up quantum computing systems, including maintaining high fidelity and long coherence times. The results have implications for various quantum technologies, including quantum clocks, quantum simulation, and quantum error correction. The research represents a significant step forward in the development of optical tweezer arrays for quantum information processing.