An atomic cat video
Researchers have arranged numerous atoms in 60 milliseconds without errors and shifted them several times – an important step towards scalable quantum computers
(Image: Lin et al./APS 2025)
Researchers at the University of Science and Technology China (USTC) in Hefei have developed a new technique that allows them to arrange atoms quickly and precisely in two and three dimensions. The decisive step for this was the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in one step. The results of the study were published in the journal Physical Review Letters and have already been successfully reproduced by other research teams, according to co-author Jian-Wei Pan.
Neutral, i.e. uncharged, atoms are a promising platform for the realization of qubits in quantum computers. In order to combine many of them and allow them to interact with each other in a targeted manner, an essential step is to precisely arrange, move and control the atoms in regular lattices. Once the lattices have been randomly filled with atoms, researchers use focused laser beams, known as optical tweezers, to arrange them in the desired geometry. Fluorescence then makes the atoms visible.
Quickly shifted thanks to AI
The Chinese team fills a grid with an edge length of a few hundred micrometers with hundreds or thousands of atoms. Computer algorithms calculate the most efficient way to move the atoms from their random starting position to the desired target position. The researchers divide this path into several steps. The AI then finds the optimal light patterns for the optical tweezers in real time, which push the atoms to the right place.
(Image:Â Lin et al./APS 2025)
"These calculations can take quite a lot of time as the lattices get bigger and bigger," Mark Saffman, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not involved in the study, told Nature. Many of his colleagues are therefore "very impressed by this work, as am I".
Regardless of the number of atoms, the time required for rearrangement remains constant at 60 milliseconds. For comparison: last year, a French team needed one second to rearrange 800 atoms without AI.
A video about Schrödinger's cat
To demonstrate the performance of the system, the team created an animation of Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. They arranged up to 549 atoms in various patterns on a grid with an edge length of 230 µm. The animation is an enlarged and slowed-down representation of the actual atomic movements, which in reality only take milliseconds.
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In their publication, the team also presents regular and abstract structures in two and three dimensions with up to 2024 atoms.
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The team sees potential to extend the method to lattices with tens of thousands of atoms. This scalability would be a decisive step towards improving error correction in quantum computers and performing complex calculations with minimal errors in the long term.
(mho)
