Insider Brief
- MIT and MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers demonstrated a faster, more energy-efficient method for cooling trapped ions in chip-based quantum systems.
- The approach uses integrated photonic chips with nanoscale antennas to enable polarization-gradient cooling using intersecting light beams.
- The system achieved cooling nearly 10 times below the standard laser (Doppler) cooling limit in about 100 microseconds.
Researchers at MIT and MIT Lincoln Laboratory have demonstrated a faster and more energy-efficient method for cooling trapped ions in chip-based quantum systems, according to MIT News.
Quantum computers could solve complex problems more quickly than classical supercomputers, but they require systems that are large and stable enough to perform operations efficiently, MIT News reports. To address this, researchers are developing trapped-ion quantum computers that use ultra-compact photonic chips instead of bulky optical equipment.
According to MIT News, trapped ions must be cooled to extremely low temperatures to reduce vibrations and prevent computational errors. Previous photonic chip-based trapped-ion systems have relied on cooling methods that were described as inefficient and slow.
A team from MIT and MIT Lincoln Laboratory has now implemented a cooling approach that achieves temperatures about 10 times below the limit of standard laser cooling. The method uses a photonic chip equipped with precisely designed antennas to manipulate tightly focused, intersecting beams of light.
The approach relies on polarization-gradient cooling, a technique involving two light beams with different polarizations that intersect to form a rotating vortex of light, as described by MIT News. While this technique had been demonstrated previously using bulk optical components, the researchers report that this is the first demonstration using integrated photonics.
According to MIT News, the photonic chip includes two nanoscale antennas connected by waveguides that route light and stabilize optical patterns. The antennas are designed with curved notches to direct light toward the trapped ion above the chip.
The researchers demonstrated cooling performance nearly 10 times below the Doppler limit and achieved this cooling in approximately 100 microseconds, MIT News reports. The work appears in two joint publications in Light: Science and Applications and Physical Review Letters.
MIT News cites Jelena Notaros, senior author of the research, as stating that the demonstration shows efficient ion cooling using polarization-diverse integrated-photonics devices. The research team includes contributors from MIT and MIT Lincoln Laboratory, with funding provided by U.S. government agencies and MIT fellowships, according to the report.
The researchers plan further experiments to characterize different chip architectures and explore additional applications of the stable light beams enabled by this design, MIT News reports.
Source: Efficient cooling method could enable chip-based trapped-ion quantum computers.
