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arXiv:1710.04866 · Nature Communications

High-fidelity entanglement between a trapped ion and a telecom photon via quantum frequency conversion

Matthias Bock, Pascal Eich, Stephan Kucera, Matthias Kreis, Andreas Lenhard, Christoph Becher, Jürgen Eschner

Published May 15, 2018• 203 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Entanglement between a stationary quantum system and a flying qubit is an essential ingredient of a quantum-repeater network. It has been demonstrated for trapped ions, trapped atoms, color centers in diamond, or quantum dots. These systems have transition wavelengths in the blue, red or near-infrared spectral regions, whereas long-range fiber-communication requires wavelengths in the low-loss, low-dispersion telecom regime. A proven tool to interconnect flying qubits at visible/NIR wavelengths to the telecom bands is quantum frequency conversion. Here we use an efficient polarization-preserving frequency converter connecting 854 nm to the telecom O-band at 1310 nm to demonstrate entanglement between a trapped 40Ca+ ion and the polarization state of a telecom photon with a high fidelity of 98.2 ± 0.2%. The unique combination of 99.75 ± 0.18% process fidelity in the polarization-state conversion, 26.5% external frequency conversion efficiency and only 11.4 photons/s conversion-induced unconditional background makes the converter a powerful ion–telecom quantum interface.

DOI
10.1038/s41467-018-04341-2

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Abstract Entanglement between a stationary quantum system and a flying qubit is an essential ingredient of a quantum-repeater network. It has been demonstrated for trapped ions, trapped atoms, color centers in diamond, or quantum dots. These systems have transition wavelengths in the blue, red or near-infrared spectral regions, whereas long-range fiber-communication requires wavelengths in the low-loss, low-dispersion telecom regime. A proven tool to interconnect flying qubits at visible/NIR wavelengths to the telecom bands is quantum frequency conversion. Here we use an efficient polarization-preserving frequency converter connecting 854 nm to the telecom O-band at 1310 nm to demonstrate entanglement between a trapped 40Ca+ ion and the polarization state of a telecom photon with a high fidelity of 98.2 ± 0.2%. The unique combination of 99.75 ± 0.18% process fidelity in the polarization-state conversion, 26.5% external frequency conversion efficiency and only 11.4 photons/s conversion-induced unconditional background makes the converter a powerful ion–telecom quantum interface.
Abstract Entanglement between a stationary quantum system and a flying qubit is an essential ingredient of a quantum-repeater network. It has been demonstrated for trapped ions, trapped atoms, color centers in diamond, or quantum dots. These systems have transition wavelengths in the blue, red or near-infrared spectral regions, whereas long-range fiber-communication requires wavelengths in the low-loss, low-dispersion telecom regime. A proven tool to interconnect flying qubits at visible/NIR wavelengths to the telecom bands is quantum frequency conversion. Here we use an efficient polarization-preserving frequency converter connecting 854 nm to the telecom O-band at 1310 nm to demonstrate entanglement between a trapped 40Ca+ ion and the polarization state of a telecom photon with a high fidelity of 98.2 ± 0.2%. The unique combination of 99.75 ± 0.18% process fidelity in the polarization-state conversion, 26.5% external frequency conversion efficiency and only 11.4 photons/s conversion-induced unconditional background makes the converter a powerful ion–telecom quantum interface.
In a typical quantum repeater scenario, remote quantum memories have to be interconnected by flying qubits transmitted in quantum channels. e.g. single photons in photonic fiber links. To establish long-distance communication, photons in the low-loss telecom wavlength regime are desirable. However, the majority of the candidates for quantum memories such as trapped atoms or ions, rare earth ensembles, color centers in diamond, atomic ensembles etc. possess optical transitions merely in the visible or near-infrared spectral regime below 1000 nm. One possible solution is the transduction of these wavelengths to the telecom region via quantum frequency conversion (QFC) based on three-wave-mixing processes in a nonlinear χ(2)-medium. Technical achievements in recent years enabled high conversion efficiencies and low conversion-induced noise contributions resulting in signal-to-background ratios high enough to demonstrate the preservation of several classical and quantum properties of the photons, e.g. first- and second-order coherence [1], time-bin entanglement [2], polarization entanglement [3] or indistinguishability [4]. QFC thus provides a powerful toolbox to interface quantum systems to the telecom bands and beyond that yet to interconnect dissimilar quantum systems.
Trapped ions are one of the leading candidates for scalable and long-distance quantum networks because of their long qubit coherence time, high-fidelity single- and two-qubit gates, and their ability to generate photons entangled with the qubit state of the ion. One method for creating ion-photon entanglement is to exploit optical transitions from the 6 P 1/2 to 6 S 1/2 levels, which naturally emit spin-photon entangled states. But these optical transitions typically lie in the ultraviolet and visible wavelength regions of the spectrum. These wavelengths exhibit significant fiber-optic propagation loss, thereby limiting the transfer of quantum information to tens of meters. Quantum frequency conversion is essential to convert these photons to telecom wavelengths so that they can propagate over long distances in fiber-based networks, as well as for compatibility with the vast number of telecom-based optoelectronic components. Here, we generate O-band telecom photons via a low-noise quantum frequency conversion scheme from photons emitted from the 6 P 1/2 to 6 S 1/2 dipole transition of a trapped barium ion. We use a two-stage quantum frequency conversion scheme to achieve a frequency shift of 375.4 THz between the input visible photon and the output telecom photon, achieving a conversion efficiency of 11%. We attain a signal-to-background ratio of over 100 for the converted O-band telecom photon with background noise of less than 15 counts/s. These results are an important step toward achieving trapped ion quantum networks over long distances for distributed quantum computing and quantum communication.
Abstract Entanglement-based quantum networks require quantum photonic interfaces between stationary quantum memories and photons, enabling entanglement distribution. Here we present such a photonic interface, designed for connecting a40Ca+single-ion quantum memory to the telecom C-band. The interface combines a memory-resonant, cavity-enhanced spontaneous parametric down-conversion photon pair source with bi-directional polarization-conserving quantum frequency conversion. We demonstrate preservation of high-fidelity entanglement during conversion, fiber transmission over up to 40 km and back-conversion to the memory wavelength. Even for the longest distance and bi-directional conversion the entanglement fidelity remains larger than 95% (98%) without (with) background correction.
We demonstrate polarisation-preserving frequency conversion of single-photon-level light at 854 nm, resonant with a trapped-ion transition and qubit, to the 1550-nm telecom C band. A total photon in / fiber-coupled photon out efficiency of ∼\sim∼ 30% is achieved, for a free-running photon noise rate of ∼\sim∼ 60 Hz. This performance would enable telecom conversion of 854 nm polarisation qubits, produced in existing trapped-ion systems, with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than 1. In combination with near-future trapped-ion systems, our converter would enable the observation of entanglement between an ion and a photon that has travelled more than 100 km in optical fiber: three orders of magnitude further than the state-of-the-art.
In a fiber-based quantum network, the utilization of the telecom band is crucial for long-distance quantum information (QI) transmission between quantum nodes. However, the near-infrared wavelength is identified as optimal for storing and processing QI through alkaline atoms. Recognizing the challenge of efficiently bridging the frequency gap between atomic quantum devices and telecom fibers while maintaining the QI carried by photons, quantum frequency conversion (QFC) serves as a pivotal quantum interface. In this study, we explore an efficient telecom-band QFC mechanism based on diamond-type four-wave mixing (FWM) with rubidium energy levels. The mechanism enables the conversion of photons between the near-infrared wavelength of 795 nm and the telecom band of 1367 or 1529 nm. Using the Heisenberg-Langevin approach, we optimize conversion efficiency (CE) across varying optical depths while considering quantum noises and present corresponding experimental parameters. Unlike previous works neglecting the applied field absorption loss, our results are more relevant to practical scenarios. Moreover, by employing the reduced-density-operator theory to construct a theoretical framework, we demonstrate that this diamond-type FWM scheme can maintain the quantum characteristics of input photons with high fidelity, such as quadrature variances and photon statistics. Importantly, these properties remain unaffected by vacuum field noise, enabling the system to achieve high-purity QFC. Another significant contribution lies in examining how this scheme impacts QI encoded in photon-number, path, and polarization degrees of freedom. These encoded qubits exhibit remarkable entanglement retention under sufficiently high CE. In the case of perfect CE, the scheme can achieve unity fidelity. This comprehensive exploration establishes a theoretical foundation for the application of the diamond-type QFC scheme based on atomic ensembles in quantum networks, laying essential groundwork for advancing the scheme in distributed quantum computing and long-distance quantum communication.