Waterloo researchers make a significant step towards reliably processing quantum information
Monday, September 11, 2023
New optical system designed to target and control individual atoms
Using laser light, researchers have developed the most robust method currently known to control individual qubits made of the chemical element barium. The ability to reliably control a qubit is an important achievement for realizing future functional quantum computers.
This new method, developed at the University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC), uses a small glass waveguide to separate laser beams and focus them four microns apart, about four-hundredths of the width of a single human hair. The precision and extent to which each focused laser beam on its target qubit can be controlled in parallel is unmatched by previous research.
The new waveguide method demonstrates a simple and precise method of control, showing promise for manipulating ions to encode and process quantum data and for implementation in quantum simulation and computing.
The paper, A guided light system for agile individual addressing of Ba+ qubits with 10−4 level intensity crosstalk, was published by Ali Binai-Motlagh, Dr. Matt Day, Nikolay Videnov, Noah Greenberg, Dr. Crystal Senko and Dr. K. Rajibul Islam in Quantum Science and Technology.
Read the full story on the University of Waterloo website.