Superconducting microwave circuits with Josephson junctions, the major platform for quantum computing, can only reach the full capability when connected. This requires an efficient protocol to distribute microwave entanglement. While quantum computers typically use discrete-variable (DV) methods for information encoding, the entire continuous-variable (CV) degree of freedom in electromagnetic fields must be utilized to achieve the highest entanglement distribution rate. Here, we propose a hybrid protocol to resolve the incompatibility between DV microwave quantum computers and CV quantum communications. CV microwave entanglement is distributed using optical swapping of optical-microwave entanglement pairs. To interface with DV microwave quantum computers, we further design a hybrid circuit to simultaneously convert and distill high-quality DV entanglement from noisy CV entanglement. The hybrid circuit is trained with machine-learning algorithms, ensuring high entanglement fidelity and generation rate. Our work not only provides a practical method to realize efficient quantum links for superconducting microwave quantum computers, but also opens avenues to bridge the gap between DV and CV quantum systems.
Superconducting microwave circuits with Josephson junctions, the major platform for quantum computing, can only reach the full capability when connected. This requires an efficient protocol to distribute microwave entanglement. While quantum computers typically use discrete-variable (DV) methods for information encoding, the entire continuous-variable (CV) degree of freedom in electromagnetic fields must be utilized to achieve the highest entanglement distribution rate. Here, we propose a hybrid protocol to resolve the incompatibility between DV microwave quantum computers and CV quantum communications. CV microwave entanglement is distributed using optical swapping of optical-microwave entanglement pairs. To interface with DV microwave quantum computers, we further design a hybrid circuit to simultaneously convert and distill high-quality DV entanglement from noisy CV entanglement. The hybrid circuit is trained with machine-learning algorithms, ensuring high entanglement fidelity and generation rate. Our work not only provides a practical method to realize efficient quantum links for superconducting microwave quantum computers, but also opens avenues to bridge the gap between DV and CV quantum systems.
Quantum phase gates are of fundamental interest in quantum physics and play an important role in quantum communication and quantum computing. Here, we propose a scheme to implement a hybrid discrete-variable–continuous-variable (DV–CV) phase gate on multiple photonic qubits by utilizing multiple control microwave cavities and a single target microwave cavity, all coupled to a common superconducting qutrit (a three-level quantum system) in circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED). In our scheme, two logic states of the target qubit are encoded via the vacuum state and the coherent state (CV state) of the microwave cavity, while two logic states of the control qubits are encoded through the vacuum and single-photon states (DV states) of the microwave cavity. This hybrid DV–CV phase gate enables target qubit to acquire a phase that depends on the total number of control qubits in non-vacuum states, when the target qubit is in the coherent state. Our protocol is extensible and operationally efficient, involving just one step and the measurement of only one target qubit. In addition, as a practical application, this hybrid DV–CV phase gate can be employed as a quantum voting machine. Our numerical simulation demonstrates that the high-fidelity construction of a hybrid three-qubit DV–CV phase gate is feasible with current circuit QED technology.
The generation of hybrid entangled states between matter qubits and microwave-field qubits is a fascinating area of quantum science and technology. In this work, we propose an efficient method to deterministically prepare hybrid entangled states between multiple superconducting qubits (matter qubits) and microwave-field qubits (flying qubits), by using a system composed of multiple superconducting qutrits and microwave cavities. Here, each superconducting (SC) qubit is encoded with the two lowest levels of a SC qutrit, while each microwave-field (MF) qubit is encoded using discrete-variable (DV) states (e.g., the vacuum and single-photon states) or continuous-variable (CV) states (e.g., coherent states) of a microwave cavity. Due to the nonpopulation of the qutrits' third energy level during the operation, decoherence from this level is significantly reduced. Moreover, the hybrid entangled states can be generated on a large scale. The operation time is independent of the number of SC qubits and MF qubits. Only two steps of the operation are needed for the preparation of the hybrid Greenberger---Horne---Zeilinger (GHZ) states as long as the initial states of the system are ready. As an example, our numerical results demonstrate that high-fidelity creation of hybrid DV-DV entangled states or CV-DV entangled states of three SC qubits and three MF qubits is feasible with current circuit QED technology. This method is universal and can be extended to generate hybrid entangled states between other matter qubits (such as atoms, ions, quantum dots, NV centers, and magnons) and microwave- or optical-field qubits.
The realization of a scalable quantum network (QN) hinges on the efficient distribution of entanglement across heterogeneous hardware platforms. While traditional QN frameworks are often restricted to single-encoding schemes, relying exclusively on either discrete (DV) or continuous (CV) variables, such segregated architectures limit the capacity and interoperability of large-scale systems. Here, we propose a scalable hybrid entanglement distribution scheme that bridges these domains by mapping hybrid entanglement swapping and concentration at DV--CV interfaces onto a unified set of series and parallel graph rules. We demonstrate that our hybrid approach exhibits a {potential} performance advantage over traditional point-to-point generation of maximally entangled states, achieving enhanced end-to-end entanglement within series-parallel topologies. These results provide a theoretical foundation for designing resource-efficient, interpretable architectures for the future quantum internet.
Quantum information processing (QIP) opens new opportunities for high-performance computing, high-precision sensing, and secure communications. Among various QIP features, the entanglement is a unique one. To take full advantage of quantum resources, it will be necessary to interface quantum systems based on different encodings of information both discrete and continuous. The goal of this paper is to lay the groundwork for the development of a robust and efficient hybrid continuous variable-discrete variable (CV-DV) quantum network, enabling the distribution of a large number of entangled states over hybrid DV-CV multi-hop nodes in an arbitrary topology. The proposed hybrid quantum communication network (QCN) can serve as the backbone for a future quantum Internet, thus providing extensive long-term impacts on the economy and national security through QIP, distributed quantum computing, quantum networking, and distributed quantum sensing. By employing the photon addition and photon subtraction modules we describe how to generate the hybrid DV-CV entangled states and how to implement their teleportation and entanglement swapping through entangling measurements. We then describe how to extend the transmission distance between nodes in hybrid QCN by employing macroscopic light states, noiseless amplification, and reconfigurable quantum LDPC coding. We further describe how to enable quantum networking and distributed quantum computing by employing the deterministic cluster state concept introduced here. Finally, we describe how the proposed hybrid CV-DV states can be used in an entanglement-based hybrid QKD.
Microwave-optical interactions and hybrid entangled states are crucial for building hybrid quantum networks. In this work, we propose an approach for realizing a cross-Kerr nonlinear interaction between microwave and optical cavities using an ensemble of nitrogen-vacancy centers (NV ensemble). This cross-Kerr interaction is achieved by an NV ensemble dispersively coupled to a microwave cavity and an optical cavity. As an application, we show that the cross-Kerr interaction can be used to create a hybrid entangled state of a discrete-variable (DV) optical qubit and a continuous-variable (CV) optical qubit. The DV optical qubit here refers to a qubit, with two logic states encoded via the vacuum and single-photon states of the optical cavity. The CV optical qubit means a qubit, whose two logic states are encoded through two quasi-orthogonal coherent states or cat states of the microwave cavity. Our method is quite simple because it only requires a single-step operation. Numerical simulations demonstrate that high-fidelity generation of the proposed hybrid state is feasible within current experimental technology. This proposal is universal and the NV ensemble can be replaced by other quantum transducers, such as magnons, rare-earth-doped crystals, and silicon-vacancy centers.
Quantum communication is needed to build powerful quantum computers and establish reliable quantum networks. At its basis lies the ability to generate and distribute entanglement to separate quantum systems, which can be used to run remote quantum operations on them or teleport quantum states from one system to another with the help of classical channels. To this end, it is useful to harness the resource of continuous-variable (CV) entanglement, since it can be efficiently and unconditionally produced by squeezing light in a nonlinear medium and can be easily manipulated, distributed, and measured using standard components. While various aspects of CV-based quantum communication have been successfully demonstrated in the optical domain, some key capabilities, such as entanglement swapping, have been lacking in the microwave domain. Here, we demonstrate three key elements of CV-based microwave quantum communication: (i) a Josephson mixer operating as a nondegenerate two-mode entangler with maximum measured logarithmic negativity E N = 1.5 , (ii) a quantum teleportation apparatus, capable of teleporting vacuum and coherent states with a maximum fidelity of 73%, which exceeds the 50% classical limit and is mainly limited by intermediate losses in the setup, and (iii) an entanglement-swapping system which generates entanglement between two remote noninteracting modes via entanglement-swapping operations applied to input vacuum and coherent states with maximum measured logarithmic negativity E N = 0.53 . Such hardware-efficient CV entanglement building blocks that are based on nondegenerate Josephson mixers could enable wide-ranging applications in modular quantum computation, quantum cryptography, and quantum communication.