A conveyor belt of atoms arranged in orderly rows could resolve a major stumbling block towards developing a large-scale quantum computer.
In a study published in Nature on 15 September1, physicists show that the system can continuously replace and replenish the individual atoms suspended in an array by laser beams called ‘optical tweezers’. Physicists have used such arrays to create some of the largest quantum computers to date — a technique called neutral-atom quantum computing — but the approach is hampered by the fact that some of the atoms inevitably get lost while they perform quantum computations.
“It is a very impressive engineering achievement in overcoming atom loss,” which will help to scale up atom-based computing, says Chao-Yang Lu, a quantum physicist at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai.
To read more, click here.