The rise of AI has created an almost insatiable appetite for computing power. Training and running AI systems requires vast numbers of transistors, and engineers are now racing to pack more of them onto every chip. With their existing designs, however, silicon transistors are rapidly running up against physical limits on how small they can get.

Fraunhofer ILT in Aachen has developed a highly complex laser-optical system for a quantum computer currently under construction at the 5th Institute of Physics at the University of Stuttgart. This system enables 2,000 Rydberg atoms to be positioned with submicrometer precision in the computer’s highly compact vacuum chamber. To do this, the system projects an array of 2,000 individually controllable laser beams into the chamber. These beams act as optical tweezers and hold the trapped Rydberg atoms precisely at the distance required for them to interact with each other. The computer’s quantum logic processes are based on these interactions.

Neutron sources can be directly identified from measured spectra rather than proxies using inference tools adapted from cosmology, according to a University of Michigan Engineering study published in Physical Review Applied. The method can improve nuclear security by helping intercept materials at ports or borders or guide first responders during emergency response.