2025/02/26 by L. P. H. Gallagher, Gallagher, L. P. H., M. Mazzanti +9 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Quantum Information and Cryptography #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.19345
openalex publication_date 2025/02/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Tightly-focused laser beams, or optical tweezers, are essential for analogue and digital quantum simulation with neutral atoms and trapped ions. Despite this, most of the current intuition and theoretical treatment utilizes the paraxial approximation, which breaks down at the focus of optical tweezers. We develop an analytic model, which we use in tandem with numerical simulations, to quantify how non-paraxial effects will manifest in the next-generation of scalable quantum hardware, where tightly focused beams are used for individual qubit control. In particular, we calculate the light potentials of Gaussian and Laguerre-Gaussian beams driving the quadrupole 2S1/2→ 2D5/2 transition in 40Ca+. Longitudinal field components in the beam center cause spatially-dependent Rabi frequencies and AC Stark shifts, leading to unexpected qubit-motion coupling. We characterize single- and two-qubit gate infidelities due to this effect with an analytic model and numerical simulation. We identify regimes where non-paraxial effects should be taken into account for high-precision quantum control. Finally, we highlight that non-paraxial effects are potentially more severe in the case of neutral atom and molecule addressing.