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arXiv:1812.00360 · Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Bidirectional and passive optical field to microwave field quantum converter with high bandwidth

Mingxia Huo

Published May 24, 2019• 0 citations
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Abstract

Abstract The conversion between microwave photons and optical photons with quantum coherence is important for quantum communication and computation. Here we report a bidirectional and passive quantum converter proposal using an ensemble of atoms coupled to microwave and optical resonators. Input photons to one resonator are converted into output photons in the other resonator without active operation. Achieving the high efficiency requires that internal losses are sufficiently weak. In this setup, the internal losses can be neglected. When the mismatch is small and the dissipation is weak, the high conversion efficiency is just slightly reduced. We find that the efficiency is almost a constant and can be close to 100% in a large interval of frequency, i.e. a high-bandwidth conversion can be realized.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/ab2478

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Abstract The conversion between microwave photons and optical photons with quantum coherence is important for quantum communication and computation. Here we report a bidirectional and passive quantum converter proposal using an ensemble of atoms coupled to microwave and optical resonators. Input photons to one resonator are converted into output photons in the other resonator without active operation. Achieving the high efficiency requires that internal losses are sufficiently weak. In this setup, the internal losses can be neglected. When the mismatch is small and the dissipation is weak, the high conversion efficiency is just slightly reduced. We find that the efficiency is almost a constant and can be close to 100% in a large interval of frequency, i.e. a high-bandwidth conversion can be realized.
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Abstract We describe a scheme to coherently convert a microwave photon of a superconducting co-planar waveguide resonator to an optical photon emitted into a well-defined temporal and spatial mode. The conversion is realized by a cold atomic ensemble trapped close the surface of the superconducting atom chip, near the antinode of the microwave cavity. The microwave photon couples to a strong Rydberg transition of the atoms that are also driven by a pair of laser fields with appropriate frequencies and wavevectors for an efficient wave-mixing process. With only several thousand atoms in an ensemble of moderate density, the microwave photon can be completely converted into an optical photon emitted with high probability into the phase matched direction and, e.g. fed into a fiber waveguide. This scheme operates in a free-space configuration, without requiring strong coupling of the atoms to a resonant optical cavity.
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A microwave-optical converter with high efficiency (>50%) and low added noise ( ≪ 1 photon) could enable the creation of scalable optical quantum networks. However, integrated converters demonstrated to date are too lossy or weakly non-linear to provide this performance. Here we develop a theory of microwave-optical conversion employing an ensemble of spin-bearing color centers strongly coupled to a photonic resonator and/or a superconducting microwave resonator. We find a counterintuitive operating point where microwave and optical photons are tuned to bare center/cavity resonances, which, compared to the weak-coupling limit, has much stronger non-linearity, offering high efficiency with reduced pump- and center-induced losses, and that is robust to inhomogeneous broadening. Taking color center and optical pump-induced losses into account, we predict ~ 95% efficiency and added noise ≪ 1 quanta at low ( μ W) pump powers for both Er- and T-centers in Si. Our results open new pathways to build quantum networks.
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Microwave photonics lends the advantages of fiber optics to electronic sensing and communication systems.In contrast to nonlinear optics, electro-optic devices so far require classical modulation fields whose variance is dominated by electronic or thermal noise rather than quantum fluctuations.Here we demonstrate bidirectional single-sideband conversion of X band microwave to C band telecom light with a microwave mode occupancy as low as 0.025 ± 0.005 and an added output noise of less than or equal to 0.074 photons.This is facilitated by radiative cooling and a triply resonant ultra-low-loss transducer operating at millikelvin temperatures.The high bandwidth of 10.7 MHz and total (internal) photon conversion efficiency of 0.03% (0.67%) combined with the extremely slow heating rate of 1.1 added output noise photons per second for the highest available pump power of 1.48 mW puts near-unity efficiency pulsed quantum transduction within reach.Together with the non-Gaussian resources of superconducting qubits this might provide the practical foundation to extend the range and scope of current quantum networks in analogy to electrical repeaters in classical fiber optic communication.