Jon Simon
23 - 28 June 2024
Stanford University
Stanford, California USA
Events
Jon Simon
Stanford University
Quantum Computers
In this tutorial I’ll provide an overview of atom-based quantum computing. I’ll begin with a quantitative introduction to the physical architecture of an atom-array-based quantum computer, describing the laser cooling, trapping and collisional loss techniques that enable loading individual atoms into optical tweezers; the fluorescence-based imaging that allows for atom detection and state descrimination, the atom re-organization techniques that produce dense atom arrays, the raman rotations used for single-qubit gates, and the Rydberg blockade processes used for two-qubit gates. From here I’ll summarize some of the most exciting results that have come from this approach, including preliminary demonstrations of error detection based upon moving atoms within the computer. I’ll conclude with my view of the upcoming challenges to achieving utility-scale quantum computing, and focus on how these challenges might be overcome with new directions like exotic atoms, circular Rydbergs, and optical resonators.
About the Speaker
Jon is a professor of physics and applied physics at Stanford. His research group focuses on developing new types of optical resonators for quantum manybody physics, computing and communication. Jon received his B.S. in physics from Caltech in 2004, where he led one of the worst soccer teams in the nation. He conducted doctoral research at MIT/Harvard in cavity QED under the supervision of Vladan Vuletic, receiving his PhD in 2010. From 2010-2012 Jon was a postdoc in the group of Markus Greiner at Harvard, where he explored synthetic quantum matter in the quantum gas microscope. Jon led a research group at the University of Chicago from 2012-2022, developing the first Landau levels for light; the first Laughlin state of photons; and with Dave Schuster, the first Mott insulator for photons & the first atom-based optical/mmwave transducer. Since 2022 Jon has been faculty at Stanford, where he directs Q-FARM in addition to running his research group. Jon is a fellow of the American Physical Society, an avid drone pilot, and highly enthusiastic about cats.
