Managing Editor’s Note: Picking up with Quantum Week, today we have insight from Jeff on why he always tracks major quantum breakthroughs at academic institutions… and on yet another incredible achievement that’s popped up in just the past few weeks in the quantum world, this time from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

We’re also just a day away from Jeff’s Quantum Flashpoint strategy session. If you haven’t already, be sure to go here to automatically sign up to join him tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET.

He’s gearing up to dive into the future of quantum technology and his favorite companies right now to play the opportunity… as well as why he believes the most popular quantum computing stocks out there aren’t actually the best way to do it.

You can go here to add your name to the list with one click. Then, read on for more of Quantum Week from Jeff…

While most of the recent breakthroughs in quantum computing have been led by the private sector, there have been a handful of academic institutions on the forefront of quantum-related research.

Naturally, the work performed at academic institutions is heavily bent towards pure scientific research. It’s less about commercialization…

But major breakthroughs at academic research labs quite often lead to private sector spin-out companies.

That’s because universities – and the individuals involved in the research – are often financially incentivized to spin out, as they typically get equity ownership, royalties, or some combination of both.

It might come as a surprise to learn that some well-known quantum computing companies have academic institution origins, such as:

D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) – now worth $12 billion, known for its quantum annealing approach to quantum computing, was spun out of the University of British Columbia, Canada
IonQ (IONQ) – now trading at a $21 billion valuation, known for its trapped-ion quantum computers, was spun out of the University of Maryland and subsequently acquired Oxford Ionics last month, which itself was a spin-out from Oxford University
QuEra Computing – known for its neutral atom arrays spun out of Harvard and MIT
Atom Computing – known for optically trapped neutral atoms spun out of the University of Colorado Boulder
Infleqtion (formerly ColdQuanta) – known for neutral atom approach to quantum computing, also spun out of the University of Colorado Boulder
Quantinuum – known for trapped-ion quantum computers, this is the combination of Honeywell’s (HON) quantum computing division and Cambridge Quantum Computing, which is a spin-out of Cambridge University
Xanadu – known for photonic quantum computing, which was spun out of the University of Toronto

There are quite a few other, smaller quantum computing spin-outs around the world. It’s quite common to see this in industries built on fundamental scientific research.

That’s why I always track major breakthroughs at academic institutions. They almost always lead to a spin-out and the establishment of a promising private company going after an exponential growth market.

And it just so happens that within the last few weeks, a record-setting achievement at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA, caught my attention.

Optical Tweezers

A team of Caltech physicists created an array of 6,100 trapped neutral atom quantum bits (qubits). The qubits are trapped in a grid using lasers.

It’s the largest array of neutral atom qubits ever assembled. And in today’s issue of Quantum Week here at The Bleeding Edge, I’ll show you why it represents incredible progress towards a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

6,100 Trapped Cesium Atoms | Source: Caltech

We’ll recall that qubits are the fundamental building blocks of quantum computers, and they can be represented by circuits, atoms, photons, or other forms of exotic matter.

The qubits in the above array are individual cesium atoms.

The achievement is pretty incredible…

In order to “trap” the cesium atoms shown above, the team split a laser beam into 12,000 optical “tweezers,” which were used to trap 6,100 atoms inside of a vacuum chamber.

The optical tweezers are highly focused laser beams used to trap each individual atom in a large array of other atoms.

What’s incredible is that the team was able to maintain the atoms in their state of superposition for a period of 13 seconds.

Most quantum computers will maintain their state of coherence for periods measured in milliseconds, and yet – in the span of those milliseconds – still be capable of incredible feats of problem solving.

Imagine researchers being able to produce an ideal result for a complex problem in 0.00127 milliseconds, that would otherwise take one of the world’s most advanced supercomputers 20 billion years to produce.

Trapped-ion or neutral atom approaches can maintain states of coherence measured in seconds.

The team in Caltech was able to set a record for both time – 13 seconds – and fidelity at 99.98%. Very impressive for a quantum computer.

One of the unique aspects of a trapped-ion or neutral atom approach to quantum computing is that they can basically operate at room temperature and don’t require a dilution refrigerator to operate at temperatures near absolute zero.

This is because using lasers as optical tweezers to trap an atom doesn’t require cryogenic temperatures. They do, however, require a high-vacuum chamber to isolate the atoms from any kind of environmental noise.

The advantage of neutral atoms is that they are more resilient to thermal fluctuations, as long as they are maintained in a high-vacuum chamber, like the one shown in the image below.

Ultra-high Vacuum Chamber Used for Record | Source: Caltech

The next step for the team at Caltech is to entangle their array of neutral atoms, which will unleash mindboggling computational capabilities far greater than any classical supercomputer on Earth.

Entanglement

To entangle qubits, the qubits need to be arranged to within 2-10 micrometers apart from one another.

Lasers are used to excite the atoms into high-energy states, which enlarges their electron orbits, causing interaction with adjacent trapped atoms.

What was also incredible about the research is that the team demonstrated the ability to move individual trapped atoms using their optical tweezers by micrometers while maintaining the qubit’s state of superposition.

This is wild, considering that typically any interaction with a qubit results in the loss of the qubit’s state of superposition.

The research clearly suggests that the team has a path forward towards quantum entanglement of the array, and ultimately a functional and powerful quantum computer.

I can feel a spin-out is on the horizon…

Naturally, given the advantages and progress being made with trapped neutral atom quantum computers, it’s no surprise that several companies are pursuing this approach.

At the moment, no public companies are developing a trapped neutral atom quantum computer, but I don’t think that will last long.

At least two or three of the above companies are well-suited to access the public markets in the months ahead.

The reality is that we don’t yet know what the “best” approach will be for universal, fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Whether it is superconducting quantum computers, trapped-ion, neutral atom, photonic, or some kind of exotic matter, each approach has its pros and cons.

My prediction is that there won’t just be one approach that wins it all.

Quantum computers that require pristine conditions and operating environments inside of dilution refrigerators at temperatures colder than space are well-suited for cloud-based services accessible from anywhere in the world.

Other kinds that can operate at room temperatures would be better suited for less pristine operating environments.

Coherence times, quantum-error correction, and fidelity will all factor into which quantum computer will be used, and for which computational task.

It’s all about optimization of these systems and improving their accuracy through quantum-error correction.

And as these systems scale to thousands of physical qubits, the ability to scale quantum-error correction improves exponentially.

And it’s all happening right now.

Jeff

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