A joint research team from the University of Colorado Boulder and Sandia National Laboratory has developed an ultra miniature optical phase modulator that is almost one percent the diameter of a human hair, yet can manipulate laser frequencies with extremely low power consumption and high precision, providing core support for future large-scale quantum computers. The relevant results were published in the latest issue of Nature Communications. In the current mainstream ion trap and neutral atom trap quantum computing schemes, quantum information is stored in a single atom. To manipulate these qubits, researchers need to use highly stable and frequency precise laser beams to "talk" to each atom and issue instructions to perform calculations. The frequency of each laser beam often needs to be precise to one billionth or even higher, which places extremely high demands on optical modulators. However, existing frequency modulation typically relies on bulky desktop level electro-optic modulators, which not only have high power consumption and heat generation, but are also difficult to scale to thousands of optical channels, becoming a key bottleneck restricting the scalability of quantum computing. The new optical phase modulator developed this time utilizes microwave frequency vibrations that oscillate billions of times per second to precisely control the laser phase, thereby efficiently generating stable new laser frequencies on the chip. Experiments have shown that the microwave power consumption of this device is only about 1/80 of that of various commercial modulators, while achieving the same function. Lower power consumption means less heat generation, allowing more optical channels to be closely arranged and even integrated on the same chip. On this basis, researchers can achieve unified and precise coordinated control of the laser frequency and phase required for a large number of atoms, forming a powerful and scalable atomic manipulation system. It is these complex and precise operations that support the implementation of quantum computing. This device is not a laboratory made product, but is entirely manufactured in a wafer fab using CMOS technology. CMOS is the most mature and scalable manufacturing technology in the modern chip industry, widely used in mobile phones, computers, and various electronic devices. This achievement is expected to drive optical technology from traditional optical devices with large volume and high energy consumption to highly integrated and low-power photonic chip platforms. (New Society)