Pasqal hits qubit control milestone ahead of Nasdaq listing vote

Investing.com -- Neutral-atom quantum computing firm Pasqal announced Monday that it has used a light-guiding chip to trap individual atoms in place, a first for the technology.

The result was achieved with Aeponyx, a photonics business Pasqal acquired less than 18 months ago, and lands weeks before shareholders vote on the company's planned Nasdaq listing.

Machines of this type use tightly focused laser beams, sometimes called optical tweezers, to hold single atoms still.

Those atoms are said to act as the qubits that store and process information. Producing and steering the beams has until now required large optical benches.

Pasqal's demonstration replaced part of that apparatus with a photonic chip. The chip generated four beams and used them to hold four rubidium atoms inside the processor, keeping them in place for about 27.5 seconds, a span comparable to the company's existing bulky-optics setups.

"By moving qubit control onto a photonic chip, we removed what we believe to be one of the biggest barriers to scale — and we did it within 18 months of acquiring Aeponyx," said Wasiq Bokhari, chief executive officer at Pasqal.

The company says the approach could reduce the optical hardware in future processors by as much as 50 times and make the machines easier to manufacture in volume. Pasqal is working toward systems holding more than 10,000 atoms.

The milestone arrives at a key point in Pasqal’s public-market timetable. Last week, the SEC declared the joint registration statement with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II (Nasdaq: BBCQ) effective on Aug. 5. Bleichroeder has set Aug. 25 for the shareholder meeting to approve the deal.

Pasqal has raised more than $300 million and counts Saudi Aramco, LG Electronics, Crédit Agricole CIB, Thales and IBM among its clients and partners.

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