⚛️ A major breakthrough for quantum computers

Toward the industrial-scale construction of quantum computers?

At Columbia University, a team led by Sebastian Will and Nanfang Yu has successfully arranged 1000 strontium atoms. This feat uses optical tweezers aided by the use of metasurfaces, as reported in their study published in Nature. Their demonstration indicates that this approach could be scaled to assemblies exceeding 100,000 atoms. Atoms constitute natural qubits, perfectly identical and easy to manage in large quantities, which greatly facilitates the manufacturing of quantum computers.


Usually, optical tweezers use highly focused lasers to hold each atom in place. Creating large arrays with this technique requires bulky and expensive equipment. Metasurfaces offer a compact and high-performance alternative: these flat components convert a single light beam into multiple trapping points, allowing the simultaneous control of several thousand atoms.

The fabrication of metasurfaces involves using nanopixels smaller than the wavelength of the light used. This characteristic gives them the ability to shape light with extreme precision, without the need for additional optical elements. Furthermore, these materials tolerate high-power lasers, which are essential for capturing a large number of atoms. This robustness suggests potential for large-scale applications.


To demonstrate the full flexibility of their platform, the team produced various atom arrangements, such as a square array of 1024 sites or more artistic patterns, like the Statue of Liberty. A metasurface with a diameter of 3.5 mm (about 0.14 inches), which contains millions of nanopixels, can generate up to 360,000 optical tweezers, significantly surpassing the performance of current techniques.

Soon, the scientists aim to use more powerful lasers to capture several hundred thousand atoms. This progress could benefit not only the field of quantum computers but also other areas such as modeling physical phenomena or designing even more precise atomic clocks. The combination of optical tweezers and metasurfaces therefore paints a promising future for quantum technologies.