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  • Open Access

Defect-Free Arrays at the Thousand-Atom Scale in a 4-K Cryogenic Environment

Desiree Lim1,*, Hadriel Mamann1,*, Grégoire Pichard1,2,*, Lilian Bourachot1, Arvid Lindberg1, Clotilde Hamot1, Hugo Le Bars1, Florian Fasola1, Siddhy Tan1 et al.

Gwennolé Cournez1, Sylvain Dutartre1, Thierry Cartry1, Sylvain Lemettre1, Richard Hostein1, Julien Paris1, Franck Ferreyrol1, Andréa Collardey1, Adrien Signoles1, Thierry Lahaye2, Corentin Monmeyran1,†, and Bruno Ximenez1

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: corentin.monmeyran@pasqal.com
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PRX Quantum 7, 033032 – Published 18 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/45t1-vl5y

Abstract

We report on a cryogenic platform at 4 K incorporating high numerical aperture optics for the generation of large-scale tweezers arrays, and compatible with Rydberg-state manipulation. We achieve trapping lifetimes of around 5000 s, significantly extending the available experimental time for the preparation of large-scale arrays. By combining two trapping lasers at different wavelengths and by minimizing other atom losses during the rearrangement and imaging processes, we demonstrate the preparation of defect-free arrays with up to 1024 atoms. Our cryogenic design opens exciting prospects for analog and digital quantum computing.

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Popular Summary

This work demonstrates a major step forward in building large, well-controlled arrays of individual atoms for quantum technologies. The authors operate their system at a low temperature of 4 K; this greatly improves the atom trapping lifetime which is currently a limitation for scaling the quantum system. In future experiments, this should also increase quantum coherence. By using a trapping method with two laser wavelengths, they can create and manipulate arrays of more than 1000 atoms. Crucially, the atoms remain trapped for a very long time (over an hour), allowing extremely reliable rearrangement into ordered patterns. In about 10% of attempts, they achieve perfectly filled, defect-free atom arrays at this large scale. These results show that combining large atom arrays with cryogenic conditions can significantly improve performance, bringing the tweezer array platform closer to practical applications in quantum computing and simulation.

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PRX Quantum 7, 033032– Published 18 August, 2026
  • Received 20 April 2026
  • Accepted 25 June 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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