The researchers combined thin silicon sheets of photodiodes and elastic microlenses and stretched them into a hemisphere.

CNN: High-tech camera acts like a bug's eye

The researchers plan to solve this problem by using two laser beams focused through the same array of microlenses.

ECONOMIST: Quantum computers

Using pulses of laser light aimed through the appropriate microlenses, the researchers were able to set each of the qubits into a particular initial state a necessary precursor to any calculation.

ECONOMIST: Quantum computers

Using this technique, and a sufficient number of microlenses, the team created an array of 80 dipole traps, each of which captured about 100 rubidium atoms, spaced 125 microns from one another.

ECONOMIST: Quantum computers