Nanophotonic Interconnects for Atom Array Quantum Networks

Using light for controlling and manipulating isolated microscopic systems is at the foundation of quantum computation and quantum information processing.

Currently, most of the existing experimental setups rely on conventional free-space optics, that are bulky and hardly scalable.  However, recent results suggest that photonic integrated circuits and nanophotonics could allow us to overcome some of the main challenges in these fields, in particular considering the future scaling of quantum systems, which is not only a critical requirement for scientific progress but also for the future commercialization of quantum technologies based on trapped particles.

This series of seminars, jointly organized by the Optica Technical Groups of Integrated Photonics and Optical Cooling and Trapping, will feature three distinguished speakers who will share insights on their progress of using integrated nanophotonic circuits for the trapping and manipulation of neutral atoms, ions and nanoparticles. This week's session will feature a talk from Hannes Bernien from the University of Innsbruck, IQOQI, and the University of Chicago.

Abstract:

Neutral atom arrays are one of the most promising quantum processor architectures. However, for practical quantum computing a million physical qubits or more will be needed. Reaching such numbers will very likely need a distributed architecture in which modules with 10s of thousand qubits are linked to each other using photons. Nanophotonics can provide an efficient optical interface to enable such links. Here I will show how atomic qubits arrays can be coupled to arrays of nanophotonic crystal cavities and present our progress towards distributing entanglement between multiple nodes of a quantum network. 

About Our Speakers

Hannes Bernien

University of Innsbruck, IQOQI, University of Chicago

About Hannes Bernien

Hannes Bernien is a Professor at the University of Innsbruck and a Director of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information. His work focuses on finding answers to questions such as how to fully scale controlled quantum systems from the current few-particle level to many particles, how to study the effects of increased complexity in these systems, and how to utilize these phenomena for quantum technology such as quantum computing and quantum networking. His lab combines techniques from quantum control and quantum optics with ultracold atoms and nanotechnology to develop new ways of engineering large, complex quantum systems and studying the phenomena that arise in such systems. Among Bernien’s awards are the Gordon Memorial Speakership 2024, the Klung Wilhelmy Science Award (2023), the New Horizon in Physics Prize by the Breakthrough Foundation (2022), an NSF Career Award (2024), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2021), and the International Quantum Technology Young Scientist Award by IOP (2020).