Systems and Control Protocols for Universal Neutral Atom-Array Quantum Processor
Candidate: Artem Zhutov
Supervisors: Alexandre Cooper-Roy, David Cory
Location: QNC 2101
Abstract
Arrays of individually trapped neutral atoms are a leading platform for building programmable quantum processors. Using tightly focused laser beams as optical tweezers, we can trap and manipulate hundreds of atoms, each serving as a quantum bit. However, as the number of controlled particles increases, achieving scalable control becomes a central challenge, requiring the mitigation of environmental and hardware imperfections that degrade gate performance.
Here, we develop a 650-atom array quantum processor that integrates in situ quantum sensing. Each atom functions as a local magnetic-field probe, imaging magnetic fields with a spatial resolution of 3 µm. We then apply corrections to local magnetic-field inhomogeneities, enabling uniform, global microwave single-qubit rotations across hundreds of atoms.
Next, we introduce a hardware-aware simulation framework to evaluate control architectures for Raman hyperfine qubit operations, predicting a single-qubit gate infidelity of 8.8 × 10⁻⁵, below the 10⁻⁴ fault-tolerance threshold. For Rydberg entangling gates, we apply linear-response theory to map laser phase noise to gate infidelity, enabling fast phase-noise engineering tailored to control protocols.
Finally, we employ quantum optimal control techniques to design robust control pulses that outperform analytical benchmarks.