Manipulating Arrays of Individual Rubidium Atoms in Optical Tweezers

At Eindhoven University of Technology, we are realizing a testbed for hybrid quantum computing based on neutral atoms in arrays of optical tweezers. To this end, we capture Rb-85 atoms from a magneto-optical trap in a rectangular grid of optical tweezers, where we will use the hyperfine ground states as long-lived qubits. By addressing highly excited Rydberg states with strongly enhanced van der Waals interactions we enable long-range coupling between tweezer sites. Here, we report our progress on the essential steps needed for quantum computation. We load individual atoms into small tweezer arrays and have also shown the use of additional tweezer beams to rearrange a stochastically loaded array into a sub-array in any desired configuration. Using optical transitions on the Rb D2 line at 780 nm we are working to state-selectively detect atoms and use this to characterize and optimize the tweezer trapping parameters. With a microwave antenna, we then perform single qubit rotations on the hyperfine ground states. The next step will be to implement the lasers for coupling to the Rydberg state in order to perform two-qubit gates, where specifically engineered optimal control pulses and quantum operations developed by our theory team can be implemented on a physical system. By automating most of the experimental specificity and technical details, such a system can ultimately be standardized into a full-stack hybrid quantum computer.