Rydberg Atom Quantum Computers Could Deploy Thousands of Error Corrected Qubits Over the Next Few Years

Quantum Computer science legend, Dr John Preskill, just delivered a Q2B Quantum computer 2023 keynote talk on the state of Quantum Error correction with quantum computers.

Preskill reported that Rydberg Atom and movable atom approaches are making the fastest progress to quantum error correction. There is a Harvard/MIT paper being released today that describes some of that work. There will be other announcements tomorrow and over the next few months.

QuEra is a leader in neutral rydberg atoms and with quantum error correction. They already have 10,000 atoms in their system. If they can get them all operationalized then there could be a near term path to 50-600 eror corrected qubits and then going beyond with better scaling. QuEra has an approach where the scaling of the system is done with lower costs. Interconnects cost about $10,000 each. Reducing those systems and other systems as the system scales will enable large scale quantum error corrected systems at lower costs.

Analog quantum computers require less error correction than digital gate-based machines. Putting such a high number of qubits into operation would also require higher qubit fidelities than possible today, even though QuEra’s collaborators at Harvard obtained a two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.5%.

QuEra has also done some research with analog quantum simulation of topological matter. Topological quantum is more error resistant.

QuEra will announce a new roa

In August, 2023, QuEra demonstrated 10,000 neutral atoms in its laser arrays.

They showed reporters an image of 10,000 laser spots that can contain 10,000 atoms in a 100 x 100 array.

“Considering our current capabilities,” he said, “we believe we can get to at least 10,000 qubits without needing interconnects. The 10,000 laser spots on this image were created by the optical tweezers used to capture the atoms. Each atom is only three or four microns apart. It is also an advantage that our qubits function without cryogenic cooling.”