The existing bottleneck in efficiently miniaturizing components for quantum computers could be eased with the help of 3D printing.
Quantum computers tackle massive computational challenges by harnessing the power of countless tiny parts working seamlessly together. Trapped ion technology, where charged particles like ions are trapped by manipulating the electromagnetic fields, is one such component.
Current microfabrication techniques fall short when it comes to producing the complex electrode structures with optimal ion confinement suitable for quantum operations.
Researchers have found a solution to this problem in high-resolution 3D printing. In a study published in Nature, scientists from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory showed that two-photon polymerization (2PP), a popular name in the world of microscale 3D printing, can fabricate large arrays of miniaturized 3D ion traps with complex geometries, without sacrificing scalability or precision.
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