Quantum computing with neutral atoms

TL;DR

This review explores how neutral atom quantum devices, with high control and scalability, can implement various quantum algorithms and applications, highlighting their potential in the NISQ era and future fault-tolerant computing.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive classification of tasks suitable for neutral atom quantum processors and discusses their scalability and future prospects.

Findings

Neutral atom devices can efficiently address a variety of quantum tasks.

Scalability of neutral atom processors reaches 100-1,000 qubits.

Potential for universal fault-tolerant quantum computing is discussed.

Abstract

The manipulation of neutral atoms by light is at the heart of countless scientific discoveries in the field of quantum physics in the last three decades. The level of control that has been achieved at the single particle level within arrays of optical traps, while preserving the fundamental properties of quantum matter (coherence, entanglement, superposition), makes these technologies prime candidates to implement disruptive computation paradigms. In this paper, we review the main characteristics of these devices from atoms / qubits to application interfaces, and propose a classification of a wide variety of tasks that can already be addressed in a computationally efficient manner in the Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum era we are in. We illustrate how applications ranging from optimization challenges to simulation of quantum systems can be explored either at the digital level (programming gate-based circuits) or at the analog level (programming Hamiltonian sequences). We give evidence of the intrinsic scalability of neutral atom quantum processors in the 100-1,000 qubits range and introduce prospects for universal fault tolerant quantum computing and applications beyond quantum computing.