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Physical Review Applied

Noncryogenic Quantum Repeaters with hot Hybrid Alkali-Noble Gases

Jia-Wei Ji, Faezeh Kimiaee Asadi, Khabat Heshami, Christoph Simon

Published May 19, 2023• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We propose a quantum repeater architecture that can operate without cryogenics. Each node in our architecture builds on a cell of hot alkali atoms and noble-gas spins that offer an hours-long storage time. Such a cell of hybrid gases is placed in a ring cavity, which allows us to suppress the detrimental four-wave-mixing noise in the system. We investigate the protocol based on a single-photon source made of an ensemble of the same hot alkali atoms. A single photon emitted from the source is either stored in the memory or transmitted to the central station to be detected. We quantify the fidelity and success probability of generating entanglement between two remote ensembles of noble-gas spins by taking into account finite memory efficiency, channel loss, and dark counts in detectors. We describe how the entanglement can be extended to long distances via entanglement swapping operations by retrieving the stored signal. Moreover, we quantify the performance of this proposed repeater architecture in terms of repeater rates and overall entanglement fidelities and compare it to another recently proposed noncryogenic quantum repeater architecture based on nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) centers and optomechanical spin-photon interfaces. As the system requires a relatively simple setup, it is easier to perform multiplexing, which enables achieving rates comparable to the rates of repeaters with N-V centers and optomechanics, while the overall entanglement fidelities of the present scheme are higher than the fidelities of the previous scheme. Our work shows that a scalable long-distance quantum network made of hot hybrid atomic gases is within reach of current technological capabilities.

DOI
10.1103/physrevapplied.19.054063

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We propose a quantum repeater architecture that can operate without cryogenics. Each node in our architecture builds on a cell of hot alkali atoms and noble-gas spins that offer an hours-long storage time. Such a cell of hybrid gases is placed in a ring cavity, which allows us to suppress the detrimental four-wave-mixing noise in the system. We investigate the protocol based on a single-photon source made of an ensemble of the same hot alkali atoms. A single photon emitted from the source is either stored in the memory or transmitted to the central station to be detected. We quantify the fidelity and success probability of generating entanglement between two remote ensembles of noble-gas spins by taking into account finite memory efficiency, channel loss, and dark counts in detectors. We describe how the entanglement can be extended to long distances via entanglement swapping operations by retrieving the stored signal. Moreover, we quantify the performance of this proposed repeater architecture in terms of repeater rates and overall entanglement fidelities and compare it to another recently proposed noncryogenic quantum repeater architecture based on nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) centers and optomechanical spin-photon interfaces. As the system requires a relatively simple setup, it is easier to perform multiplexing, which enables achieving rates comparable to the rates of repeaters with N-V centers and optomechanics, while the overall entanglement fidelities of the present scheme are higher than the fidelities of the previous scheme. Our work shows that a scalable long-distance quantum network made of hot hybrid atomic gases is within reach of current technological capabilities.
We propose a quantum repeater architecture that can operate without cryogenics. Each node in our architecture builds on a cell of hot alkali atoms and noble-gas spins which offer a storage time as long as a few hours. Such a cell of hybrid gases is placed in a ring cavity, which allows us to suppress the detrimental four-wave mixing (FWM) noise in the system. We investigate the protocol based on a single-photon source made of an ensemble of the same hot alkali atoms. A single photon emitted from the source is either stored in the memory or transmitted to the central station to be detected. We quantify the fidelity and success probability of generating entanglement between two remote ensembles of noble-gas spins by taking into account finite memory efficiency, channel loss, and dark counts in detectors. We describe how the entanglement can be extended to long distances via entanglement swapping operations by retrieving the stored signal. Moreover, we quantify the performance of this proposed repeater architecture in terms of repeater rates and overall entanglement fidelities and compare it to another recently proposed non-cryogenic quantum repeater architecture based on nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers and optomechanical spin-photon interfaces. As the system requires a relatively simple setup, it is much easier to perform multiplexing, which enables achieving rates comparable to the rates of repeaters with NV centers and optomechanics, while the overall entanglement fidelities of the present scheme are higher than the fidelities of the previous scheme. Our work shows that a scalable long-distance quantum network made of hot hybrid atomic gases is within reach of current technological capabilities.
We propose a quantum repeater architecture that can operate under ambient conditions. Our proposal builds on recent progress towards non-cryogenic spin-photon interfaces based on nitrogen-vacancy centers, which have excellent spin coherence times even at room temperature, and optomechanics, which allows to avoid phonon-related decoherence and also allows the emitted photons to be in the telecom band. We apply the photon number decomposition method to quantify the fidelity and the efficiency of entanglement established between two remote electron spins. We describe how the entanglement can be stored in nuclear spins and extended to long distances via quasi-deterministic entanglement swapping operations involving the electron and nuclear spins. We furthermore propose schemes to achieve high-fidelity readout of the spin states at room temperature using the spin-optomechanics interface. Our work shows that long-distance quantum networks made of solid-state components that operate at room temperature are within reach of current technological capabilities.
Quantum networking seeks to enable global entanglement distribution through terrestrial and free space channels; however, the exponential loss in these channels necessitates quantum repeaters with efficient, long lived quantum memories (QMs). Space based architectures, particularly satellite assisted links, offer a path to truly global connectivity, yet they demand QMs that are compatible with orbital factors such as infrared radiation and the unique challenges of operating aboard a satellite. In this work, we propose a multimode quantum memory (MMQM) for low Earth orbit (LEO) repeaters based on the atomic frequency comb (AFC) protocol. Our design integrates a hybrid alkali noble gas ensemble in an optical cavity, using alkali atoms for strong photon matter coupling and noble gas nuclear spins for minutes to hours coherence, all without the need for cryogenics. The architecture natively supports temporal and spectral multiplexing, enabling the storage of 100 modes to parallelize probabilistic operations and overcome light limited round trip times. Representative link budgets at h=500h = 500h=500 km with realistic apertures, ηmem≳70η_{\text{mem}}\gtrsim 70%ηmem​≳70, and tbuffert_{\text{buffer}}tbuffer​ of several minutes predict improvements of up to two orders of magnitude in per pass success probability and instantaneous SKR relative to a memoryless dual downlink, with clear scaling in NNN. Our contributions are (i) a non cryogenic, space ready multimode memory, (ii) a systems analysis coupling mode count, storage time, and orbital geometry to achievable rate, and (iii) a near term implementation roadmap. Together, these results indicate feasibility with current to near term technology and provide a practical path toward a high rate, space enabled quantum internet.
We propose a non-cryogenic optical quantum memory for noble-gas nuclear spins based on the Atomic Frequency Comb (AFC) protocol. Owing to the hours-long coherence lifetimes of the noble-gas spins and the large bandwidth provided by the AFC independently of the optical depth, we estimate a time-bandwidth product of up to 9.7×10159.7 \times 10^{15}9.7×1015 for a realistic experimental configuration, using alkali-metal atoms as mediators. Leveraging this long-lived multimode memory, we propose a fiber-based quantum repeater scheme that could enable entanglement distribution across distances over 2000 km2000 \ \mathrm{km}2000 km with only 888 elementary links, operating fully without cryogenics. Finally, we discuss how these quantum memories can enhance rates in satellite quantum communication networks.
Quantum repeaters enable the generation of reliable entanglement across long distances despite the underlying channel noise. Nevertheless, realizing quantum repeaters poses a difficult engineering challenge due to various device constraints and design tradeoffs. Herein we propose and analyze an efficient hybrid quantum repeater design that integrates atom-based quantum processing units, spontaneous parametric down-conversion photon sources, and atomic frequency comb quantum memories. Our design leverages the strong spectrotemporal multiplexing capability of the quantum memory to enable high-rate elementary-link entanglement generation between repeater nodes. Transferring the photonic entanglement into matter-qubit entanglement, together with deterministic quantum operations, further enables reliable long-distance entanglement distribution. We analyze photon-loss channels in the hybrid architecture and propose suitable error-suppression strategies that are natively incorporated into our repeater protocol. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate the advantages of our hybrid design for end-to-end secret key rates in a linear repeater-chain model. With continued advances in relevant hardware technologies, we envision that the proposed hybrid design is well suited for large-scale quantum networks.
Abstract Reliable quantum communication over hundreds of kilometers is a daunting yet necessary requirement for a quantum internet. To overcome photon loss, the deployment of quantum repeater stations between distant network nodes is necessary. A plethora of different quantum hardware is being developed for this purpose, each platform with its own opportunities and challenges. Here, we propose to combine two promising hardware platforms in a hybrid quantum repeater architecture to lower the cost and boost the performance of long-distance quantum communication. We outline how ensemble-based quantum memories combined with single-spin photon transducers, which can transfer quantum information between a photon and a single spin, can facilitate massive multiplexing, efficient photon generation, and quantum logic for amplifying communication rates. As a specific example, we describe how a single Rubidium (Rb) atom coupled to nanophotonic resonators can function as a high-rate, telecom-visible entangled photon source with the visible photon being compatible with storage in a Thulium-doped crystal memory (Tm-memory) and the telecom photon being compatible with low loss fiber propagation. We experimentally verify that Tm and Rb transitions are in resonance with each other. Our analysis shows that by employing up to 9 repeater stations, each equipped with two Tm-memories capable of holding up to 625 storage modes, along with four single Rb atoms, one can reach a quantum communication rate of about 10 secret bits per second across distances of up to 1000 km.