Modular and Streaming Architectures for Atomic Quantum Computing

ABSTRACT

Transportable arrays of atoms in optical tweezers have enabled fully programmable compilation of logical operations with neutral atom quantum computers. However, the realization of utility-scale algorithms is precluded by two limitations of current tweezer array systems: First, tweezer transport times are limited by the inertia of the atom. Second, tweezer arrays are not infinitely scalable, and the atomic transport distance is currently limited to the ~mm-scale. I will describe our work on novel atomic transport methods to address these limitations. First, I will describe how speed limits due to atomic inertia can be obviated in certain protocols by performing operations while atoms are moving with constant velocity. Second, I will describe our efforts towards a modular quantum computing architecture in which atom arrays can be transported over ~15 cm to mediate communication between several modules spaced by ~4 cm in the same vacuum chamber. Based on a microscope objective on an air bearing linear motion stage, this approach may offer a route to substantially larger atomic processors within a single apparatus.

BIOGRAPHY

Jake completed his PhD in 2017 under the guidance of Jun Ye and the late Deborah Jin at JILA and the University of Colorado-Boulder, and received the Springer Thesis Award. He was then a Richard Chace Tolman Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech under the guidance of Manuel Endres. He started as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at UIUC in Fall 2020 and has since pioneered the use of ytterbium-171 atom arrays for quantum computing and networking, long-distance-transportable arrays for modular quantum computing, and metastable helium-3 atom arrays for resource-efficient quantum simulation. He moved to the University of Chicago as an associate professor in July 2026. He is a recipient of the 2022 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program, the 2023 Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program, the 2024 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2024 Department of Energy Early Career Program, and the 2026 Sloan Research Fellowship.