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arXiv:2504.07348 · Science Advances

A millisecond integrated quantum memory for photonic qubits

Yu-Ping Liu, Zhong-Wen Ou, Tian-Xiang Zhu, Ming-Xu Su, Chao Liu, Yong‐Jian Han, Zong‐Quan Zhou, Chuan‐Feng Li, Guang‐Can Guo

Published Mar 26, 2025• 31 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum memories for light are essential building blocks for quantum repeaters and quantum networks. Integrated operations of quantum memories could enable scalable application with low-power consumption. However, the photonic quantum storage lifetime in integrated devices has so far been limited to tens of microseconds, falling short of the requirements for practical applications. Here, we demonstrate quantum storage of photonic qubits for 1.021 milliseconds based on a laser-written optical waveguide fabricated in a 151 Eu 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 crystal. Spin dephasing of 151 Eu 3+ is mitigated through dynamical decoupling applied via on-chip electric waveguides, and we obtain a storage efficiency of 12.0 ± 0.5% at 1.021 milliseconds, which is a demonstration of integrated quantum memories that outperforms the efficiency of a simple fiber delay line. Such long-lived waveguide-based quantum memory could support applications in quantum repeaters, and further combination with critical magnetic fields could enable potential application as transportable quantum memories.

DOI
10.1126/sciadv.adu5264

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Quantum memories for light are essential building blocks for quantum repeaters and quantum networks. Integrated operations of quantum memories could enable scalable application with low-power consumption. However, the photonic quantum storage lifetime in integrated devices has so far been limited to tens of microseconds, falling short of the requirements for practical applications. Here, we demonstrate quantum storage of photonic qubits for 1.021 milliseconds based on a laser-written optical waveguide fabricated in a 151 Eu 3+ :Y 2 SiO 5 crystal. Spin dephasing of 151 Eu 3+ is mitigated through dynamical decoupling applied via on-chip electric waveguides, and we obtain a storage efficiency of 12.0 ± 0.5% at 1.021 milliseconds, which is a demonstration of integrated quantum memories that outperforms the efficiency of a simple fiber delay line. Such long-lived waveguide-based quantum memory could support applications in quantum repeaters, and further combination with critical magnetic fields could enable potential application as transportable quantum memories.
ABSTRACT Photonic integrated quantum memories are essential for the construction of scalable quantum networks. Spin-wave quantum storage, which can support on-demand retrieval with a long lifetime, is indispensable for practical applications, but has never been demonstrated in an integrated solid-state device. Here, we demonstrate spin-wave quantum storage based on a laser-written waveguide fabricated in a 151Eu3+:Y2SiO5 crystal, using both the atomic frequency comb and noiseless photon-echo protocols. Qubits encoded with single-photon-level inputs are stored and retrieved with a fidelity of 94.9%±1.2%{94.9\%\pm 1.2\%}94.9%±1.2%, which is far beyond the maximal fidelity that can be obtained with any classical device. Our results underline the potential of laser-written integrated devices for practical applications in large-scale quantum networks, such as the construction of multiplexed quantum repeaters in an integrated configuration and high-density transportable quantum memories.
Photonic quantum memory is the core element in quantum information processing (QIP). For the scalable and convenient practical applications, great efforts have been devoted to the integrated quantum memory based on various waveguides fabricated in solids. However, on-demand storage of qubits, which is an essential requirement for QIP, is still challenging to be implemented using such integrated quantum memory. Here we report the on-demand storage of time-bin qubits in an on-chip waveguide memory fabricated on the surface of a ^{151}Eu^{3+}:Y_{2}SiO_{5} crystal, utilizing the Stark-modulated atomic frequency comb protocol. A qubit storage fidelity of 99.3%±0.2% is obtained with single-photon-level coherent pulses, far beyond the highest fidelity achievable using the classical measure-and-prepare strategy. The developed integrated quantum memory with the on-demand retrieval capability represents an important step toward practical applications of integrated quantum nodes in quantum networks.
Long-lived storage of single photons is a fundamental requirement for enabling quantum communication and foundational tests of quantum physics over extended distances. While the implementation of a global-scale quantum network requires quantum storage times on the order of seconds to minutes, existing photonic quantum memories have so far been limited to subsecond lifetimes. Although 151^{151}151Eu3+^{3+}3+:Y2_22​SiO5_55​ crystals exhibit substantially extended spin coherence times at the `magic' magnetic field, the concomitant weak optical absorption has until now prevented single-photon storage. Here, we overcome this challenge by integrating a noiseless photon echo protocol--which makes full use of the crystal's natural absorption for photonic storage--with a universally robust dynamical decoupling sequence incorporating adiabatic pulses to efficiently protect delocalized spin-wave excitation, enabling long-lived quantum storage at the `magic' magnetic field. At a storage time of 5.6 s, we achieve a time-bin qubit storage fidelity of 88.0 ±\pm± 2.1%, surpassing the maximum fidelity attainable via classical strategies. Our device reaches a 1/e1/e1/e storage lifetime of 27.6 ±\pm± 0.5 s, enabling single-photon-level storage for 42 s with a signal-to-noise ratio greater than unity. This work establishes photonic quantum memory in the minute-scale regime, laying a solid foundation for global-scale quantum network and deep-space quantum experiments.
Quantum memories at telecom wavelengths are crucial for the construction of large-scale quantum networks based on existing fiber networks. On-demand storage of telecom photonic qubits is an essential request for such networking applications but yet to be demonstrated. Here we demonstrate the storage and on-demand retrieval of telecom photonic qubits using a laser-written waveguide fabricated in an ^{167}Er^{3+}:Y_{2}SiO_{5} crystal. Both ends of the waveguide memory are directly connected with fiber arrays with a fiber-to-fiber efficiency of 51%. Storage fidelity of 98.3(1)% can be obtained for time-bin qubits encoded with single-photon-level coherent pulses, which is far beyond the maximal fidelity that can be achieved with a classical measure and prepared strategy. This device features high reliability and easy scalability, and it can be directly integrated into fiber networks, which could play an essential role in fiber-based quantum networks.
Scalable implementation of quantum networks and photonic processors require integrated photonic memories with high efficiency, yet current integrated systems have been limited to storage efficiencies below 27.8%. Here, we demonstrate highly efficient integrated quantum memories based on rare-earth-iondoped crystals coupled with impedance-matched microcavities, realized in two novel architectures: 200-micrometer-thin membranes of Eu3+:Y2SiO5 integrated with fiber-based microcavities, and waveguide-based cavities fabricated using femtosecond lasers. Our approach achieves reliable integrated quantum storage with record efficiencies of 80.3(7)% for weak coherent pulses and 69.8(1.6)% for telecom-heralded single photons, alongside the storage of 20 temporal modes with an average efficiency of 51.3(2)%. Moreover, the thin-membrane Eu3+:Y2SiO5 architecture enables spectrally tunable efficient quantum storage via variable strain, providing a flexible interface for quantum networks. By combining high efficiency, large multimode capacity, and tunability, our devices establish a versatile hardware foundation for scalable quantum repeaters and chip-scale photonic processors.
Photonic polarization qubits are widely used in quantum computation and quantum communication due to the robustness in transmission and the easy qubit manipulation. An integrated quantum memory for polarization qubits is a useful building block for large-scale integrated quantum networks. However, on-demand storing polarization qubits in an integrated quantum memory is a long-standing challenge due to the anisotropic absorption of solids and the polarization-dependent features of microstructures. Here we demonstrate a reliable on-demand quantum memory for polarization qubits, using a depressed-cladding waveguide fabricated in a ^{151}Eu^{3+}:Y_{2}SiO_{5} crystal. The site-2 ^{151}Eu^{3+} ions in Y_{2}SiO_{5} crystal provides a near-uniform absorption for arbitrary polarization states and a new pump sequence is developed to prepare a wideband and enhanced absorption profile. A fidelity of 99.4±0.6% is obtained for the qubit storage process with an input of 0.32 photons per pulse, together with a storage bandwidth of 10 MHz. This reliable integrated quantum memory for polarization qubits reveals the potential for use in the construction of integrated quantum networks.