Neutral Rydberg atoms in optical lattices or optical tweezer arrays are a fascinating scalable physical platform to realise quantum information processing and explore strongly correlated many-body quantum physics. Here, atoms can be laser-excited to high-lying electronic so-called Rydberg states, in which they exhibit strong and long-range interactions. These can be then be used in a controllable fashion for the realisation of ultra-fast two- or even multi-qubit gate operations, to build e.g. digital quantum computers and simulators [1,2]. The aim of the MUNIQC-Atoms collaboration, which involves academic as well as industrial partners and is part of the Munich Quantum Valley initiative, is the development and implementation of neutral-atom based quantum processors.
In our Theoretical Quantum Technology group, we will on the one hand focus on developing new schemes for fault-tolerant error correction, which are tailormade for the platforms developed by our experimental partners. These protocols will thereby directly support the first realisation of robust and error-corrected logical qubits in neutral-atom quantum processors. On the other hand, we will develop novel error correction strategies and efficient decoders, realise theory studies and propose new schemes for scalable fault-tolerant Rydberg atom quantum computing, and explore novel many-body physics phenomena in this emergent quantum technology platform.
[1] Mesoscopic Rydberg Gate based on Electromagnetically Induced Transparency, Müller, I. Lesanovsky, H. Weimer, H. Büchler, P. Zoller, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 170502 (2009).
[2] A Rydberg Quantum Simulator, H. Weimer, M. Müller, I. Lesanovsky, P. Zoller, H.-P. Büchler, Nature Phys. 6, 382 (2010).
Illustration Credit: MPQ