One-look conclusion: The University of Stuttgart has achieved a single-atom lifetime of about 11 milliseconds for “circular Rydberg atoms” at room temperature, and optical tweezer trapping lasts about 133 milliseconds—without liquid-helium cooling.
According to Nature Communications (Pultinevicius et al., 2026-09-15) and a University of Stuttgart press release (2026-09-16, No.38): electrons are driven into high-angular-momentum orbitals that are approximately circular, with an orbital diameter of about 1.1 micrometers (roughly 10,000 times that of a typical atom). The lifetime is more than 20 times longer than in free space for the same state; the principal quantum number can be controlled up to n=103. The method is to use transparent conductive plates to shield the environment’s microwaves (Purcell suppression of blackbody-radiation decay), bringing an idea from the 1980s to a modern optical-tweezer platform.
First, to be clear: this is a fundamental platform advance for quantum simulation and quantum sensing—not a commercially available quantum computer product.
Figure 1: Artistic depiction of a circular Rydberg atom array (Celina Brandes / Uni Stuttgart)
Figure 2: Photo of the experimental setup (Patrick Pfeifer / Uni Stuttgart)
#量子 #science
According to Nature Communications (Pultinevicius et al., 2026-09-15) and a University of Stuttgart press release (2026-09-16, No.38): electrons are driven into high-angular-momentum orbitals that are approximately circular, with an orbital diameter of about 1.1 micrometers (roughly 10,000 times that of a typical atom). The lifetime is more than 20 times longer than in free space for the same state; the principal quantum number can be controlled up to n=103. The method is to use transparent conductive plates to shield the environment’s microwaves (Purcell suppression of blackbody-radiation decay), bringing an idea from the 1980s to a modern optical-tweezer platform.
First, to be clear: this is a fundamental platform advance for quantum simulation and quantum sensing—not a commercially available quantum computer product.
Figure 1: Artistic depiction of a circular Rydberg atom array (Celina Brandes / Uni Stuttgart)
Figure 2: Photo of the experimental setup (Patrick Pfeifer / Uni Stuttgart)
#量子 #science
