Scalable Networking of Neutral-Atom Qubits: Nanofiber-Based Approach for Multiprocessor Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers

Neutral atoms are among the leading platforms toward realizing fault-tolerant quantum computation (FTQC). However, scaling up a single neutral-atom device beyond <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><a:msup><a:mn>10</a:mn><a:mn>4</a:mn></a:msup></a:math> atoms to meet the demands of FTQC for practical applications remains a challenge. To overcome this challenge, we clarify the criteria and technological requirements for further scaling based on multiple neutral atom quantum processing units (QPUs) connected through photonic networking links. Our quantitative analysis shows that nanofiber optical cavities have the potential as an efficient atom-photon interface to enable fast entanglement generation between atoms in distinct neutral-atom modules, allowing multiple neutral-atom QPUs to operate cooperatively without sacrificing computational speed. Using state-of-the-art millimeter-scale nanofiber cavities with the finesse of thousands, over a hundred atoms can be coupled to the cavity mode with an optical tweezer array, with expected single-atom cooperativity exceeding 100 for telecom-band transition of ytterbium atoms. This enables efficient time-multiplexed entanglement generation with a predicted Bell-pair generation rate of <d:math xmlns:d="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"><d:msup><d:mn>10</d:mn><d:mn>5</d:mn></d:msup><d:mspace width="0.1em"/><d:msup><d:mrow><d:mi mathvariant="normal">s</d:mi></d:mrow><d:mrow><d:mo>−</d:mo><d:mn>1</d:mn></d:mrow></d:msup></d:math> while maintaining a small footprint for channel multiplexing. These proposals and results indicate a promising pathway for building large-scale multiprocessor fault-tolerant quantum computers using neutral atoms, nanofiber optical cavities, and fiber-optic networks.