Quantity and quality? 6,100 qubit array published in Nature

Quantum Campus shares the latest in quantum science and technology. Read by more than 1,700 researchers, we publish on Fridays and are always looking for news from across the country. Want to see your work featured? Submit your ideas to the editor.

6,100 qubit array

Caltech physicists created the largest qubit array ever assembled, trapping 6,100 neutral-atom qubits. They kept the cesium atoms in superposition for about 13 seconds while manipulating individual qubits with 99.98 percent accuracy. That’s nearly nearly 10 times more atoms that were held nearly 10 times longer than what was possible in previous similar arrays, according to the team.

“Now we have quantity and quality,” said Gyohei Nomura, a graduate student who was part of the study.

This work was published in Nature.

Molecular vibrations

Using a microfluidic infrared flow cell, engineers at Johns Hopkins and NIST induced special hybrid light-matter states, allowing tiny molecular vibrations to be detected with greater clarity and precision. These unique movements of atoms within a molecule can reveal the presence of a range of diseases.

“We were trying to overcome a long-standing challenge in molecular sensing: How do you make optical detection of molecules more sensitive, more robust, and more adaptable to real-world conditions?” said Johns Hopkins’ Ishan Barman, who led the research. “Rather than trying to incrementally improve conventional methods, we asked a more radical question: What if we could re-engineer the very way light interacts with matter to create a fundamentally new kind of sensing?”

This work was published in Science Advances.

Quantum networking stack

Cisco announced a “complete quantum networking stack,” including a quantum compiler designed for distributed quantum computing across networked processors. With quantum circuit partitioning and scheduling of entanglement generation, it allows for network-connected computers made of heterogeneous quantum compute technologies and can distribute that partitioned circuit across an entire data center of processors, all connected through a quantum network, according to the company. 

Ramana Kompella, head of research at Cisco, told IEEE Spectrum that the stack will also work with classical computers and conventional computer networks.

Bridging magnetism and optics

A multi-institutional team developed optically addressable spin qubits that “act as a nanoscale bridge between the world of magnetism and the world of optics” and can operate on frequencies used by traditional telecommunications infrastructure. Based on the rare-earth element erbium, these qubits could be used to measure magnetic fields, temperature, or pressure at the nanoscale and be integrated onto silicon-based chips.

“Information could be encoded in the magnetic state of a molecule and then accessed with light at wavelengths compatible with well-developed technologies underlying optical fiber networks and silicon photonic circuits,” co-first author and UChicago postdoc Leah Weiss said.

The team included researchers at the University of Chicago, the University of California Berkeley, Argonne National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

This work was published in Science.

Quickbits

• Quantum error correction near the coding theoretical bound (npj Quantum Information)

• Quantum Cross-platform Advanced Training program launches at University of Texas

• Anisotropic strain relaxation-induced directional ultrafast carrier dynamics in RuO₂ films (Science Advances)

Quantum Campus is edited by Bill Bell, a science writer and marketing consultant who has covered physics and high-performance computing for more than 25 years. Disclosure statement.