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  • Featured in Physics
  • Open Access

Stability, Degeneracy, and Scalability of a 600-Site Cavity Array Microscope

Anna Soper1,*, Danial Shadmany2,*, Adam L. Shaw1,2, Lukas Palm3, David I. Schuster1, and Jonathan Simon1,2,†

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: jonsimon@stanford.edu
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Phys. Rev. X 16, 041009 – Published 8 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/9cwp-ppp2

Abstract

Optical cavities are a foundational technology for controlling light-matter interactions. While interfacing a single cavity to either an atom or ensemble has become a standard tool, the advent of single-atom control in large atomic arrays has spurred interest in a new frontier of “many-cavity QED,” featuring many independent resonators capable of separately addressing individual quantum emitters. In this fast-evolving landscape, the cavity array microscope was recently introduced—employing free space intracavity optics to engineer a two-dimensional array of tightly spaced cavity TEM00 modes with wavelength-scale waists, ideally suited for interfacing with atom arrays. Here, we realize the next generation of this architecture, achieving hundreds of degenerate cavity modes with improved, uniform finesse, and explore the technical features of the system which will enable further scalability. In particular, we study imperfections, including optical aberrations, field of view constraints, array nondegeneracies, and losses from optical elements. We identify the sensitivity to these various factors and exposit the control knobs and techniques necessary to align and operate the system in a stable manner. Ultimately, we lay out a pathway toward operation with tens of thousands of independent cavities while maintaining compatibility with existing atom arrays, paving the way to myriad applications including highly parallelized remote entanglement generation, fast and nondestructive midcircuit readout, and the implementation of hybrid atom-photon Hamiltonians.

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synopsis

How To Arrange Hundreds of Atoms Between Two Mirrors

Published 8 October, 2026

A new device in which more than 600 atoms are manipulated within a single optical cavity could allow for the scaling up of neutral-atom quantum computers.

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Popular Summary

Optical cavities have been used for decades to facilitate strong interactions between quantum emitters and light; however, they typically operate with a single spatial mode, providing just one “interaction site.” In recent years, the development of neutral atom array quantum processors has spurred interest in cavity architectures that independently interface with many quantum emitters in parallel. We address this challenge by developing a scalable cavity array microscope containing over 600 independent optical cavities, achieved by integrating specialized optical elements inside the cavity to generate a two-dimensional grid of tightly focused modes. We further uncover the fundamental mechanisms governing its stability, mutual degeneracy, and scalability, providing a viable pathway toward scaling this architecture to support tens of thousands of high-performance cavities. Our results facilitate expanded opportunities across various disciplines, ranging from highly parallelized remote entanglement generation in quantum networks to spatially resolved biological and chemical sensing.

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Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. X 16, 041009– Published 8 October, 2026
  • Received 6 February 2026
  • Accepted 12 August 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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