Sandia National Lab Creates New Ion Trap for Quantum Computers

Sandia National Laboratories has produced its first set of ion traps that will be used on certain quantum computers.

The devices, called Enchilada Traps, are microchips that can store up to 200 qubits using a network of five trapping zones. Daniel Stick, a scientist and the lead researcher with SNL’s Quantum Systems Accelerator, said a 200-qubit quantum computer with current error rates will allow researchers to test architecture that will support physics, chemistry, data science and other scientific fields.

The Enchilada Traps will be used at the lab and at Duke University to run quantum algorithms, Sandia National Laboratories said.

The ion trap development comes a month after Los Alamos National Laboratory identified a trainable quantum neural network that could simplify quantum machine learning. According to LANL, using simple data for quantum ML training creates circuits that can be implemented more easily and can enable quantum computers to perform practical work.

The SNL development also comes months after Argonne National Laboratory opened the Argonne Quantum Foundry, a research facility designed to advance quantum information science and technologies.