Thesis Defense |
Events on Tuesday, December 8th, 2026
- Rydberg Interactions for Dual Species Neutral Atom Quantum Processors
- Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 5280
- Speaker: Sam Norrell
- Abstract: Neutral atom quantum processors using Rydberg interactions have seen tremendous development in recent years. Despite impressive progress, there are still many technical challenges and open questions that remain before utility-scale quantum computation is achieved. This thesis explores one of the fundamental building blocks of such quantum processors: Rydberg-Rydberg atom interactions. These interactions afford entanglement and connectivity for most neutral atom quantum computers, yet are often approximated and calculated asymptotically. In this thesis, we investigate how subtleties in these interactions affects quantum entangling gate fidelity.
Additionally contained in this thesis are details on the design and construction of the Rubidium-Cesium Atomic Qubit Array (RC-AQuA) experiment. This apparatus is designed to be a continuously reloading, error correcting, dual species quantum processor. Further, the experiment is engineered to excite Rydberg $np_{3/2}$ states in both rubidium and cesium, whose interactions are considerably less-studied than single-species $ns$ or $nd$ levels. In this thesis, we comprehensively study interactions between $np_{3/2}$ states, providing a pathway towards error-corrected computation with RC-AQuA. - Host: Mark Saffman