This post is about IonQ's Aria and Forte quantum computers. IonQ's current quantum computer, Aria, can hold up to 32 qubits and uses lasers to manipulate the qubits. These qubits are limited to the number of laser beams for control, and it is impossible to align them individually or prevent excessive crosstalk between qubits. Still, the system performs well by running many algorithms using algorithmic qubits a metric system IonQ using for benchmarking quantum computer performances. The system is available on private CLOUD.
The next version to be released is codenamed Forte (cool name), equal to the Aria's qubits than its predecessor Aria but will have lower noise and improved fidelity, pioneering a new technique controlling the laser that manipulates the qubits using an existing technology called Accousto-Optic Deflector or AOD.
The AOD system has a fascinating history. An Acousto-Optic Deflector spatially controls the optical beam. In the operation of an Acousto-optic deflector, the power driving the acoustic transducer is kept on at a constant level, while the acoustic frequency is varied to deflect the beam to different angular positions. This allows more precise software control of qubits leading to less noise and crosstalk. AOM (the same as AOD, M for modulator) technology has made practical the Bose-Einstein condensation, for which the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, and Carl E. Wieman. Another application of acoustic-optical deflection is the optical trapping of small molecules. Now, this device is used to control IonQ's Forte quantum computer, offering Beam Steering Device offering price control of the laser beams, no crosstalk effects, which results in better average "two-qubit gates" that the system can address many hundred qubits using a single beam, and the system can have more qubits than the beams.
I will post results on comparison of these two systems running the same circuit on each machine. I'm currently researching the topic.
The image is a Acousto-Optic Deflector. I am not sure if IonQ using this particular model.