Dreon, Davide

Date:    Thursday, April 20, 2023 
Time:    16:00
Place:   ETH Campus Hönggerberg, HPF G6
Host:    Tilman Esslinger 

Academia to Industry: The development of Neutral Atom Quantum Computing 

Davide Dreon, PASQAL (France) 

Abstract: In recent decades, there has been remarkable progress in the control of isolated quantum systems. This mastery of quantum technology has led to its transition from purely fundamental research to potential industrial applications. The development of a functioning quantum computer is among the most ambitious technological goals of our time, with various platforms racing to achieve the best quantum processor. Among these platforms, arrays of neutral atoms held in optical tweezers are emerging as a promising quantum system, capable of both analogue and digital computation. This approach offers high spatial control of individual particles and holds the potential for large scalability. During this presentation, I will introduce the atom-based quantum processors that PASQAL, a spin-off company from the Institut d’Optique, is currently developing. The development of these processors builds upon experimental techniques pioneered by the Quantum Optics group at Laboratoire Charles Fabry. Their groundbreaking work resulted in the creation of a versatile quantum simulation platform capable of generating Hamiltonians using 2D and 3D arrays of single atoms trapped in optical tweezers. These atoms strongly interact with one another when excited to Rydberg levels, enabling the realization of a robust and powerful quantum simulator. I will provide detailed insights into our technology and into the results of our latest experimental setup, which incorporates the tweezer technology into a cryogenic environment. At 4 Kelvin, we have achieved a vacuum-limited lifetime exceeding 6000 seconds, which marks a significant advancement compared to room temperature setups, with an improvement of two orders of magnitude. Leveraging our optimised trap loading equalisation procedure, we can now build registers with over 300 atoms while ensuring high accuracy of defect-free realisations. This prototype represents a significant milestone, bringing us one step closer to the realization of a neutral atom processor with more than a thousand qubits.