Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Quantum 2.0 Conference and Exhibition

Toward High-Efficiency Quantum Transduction between Superconducting Circuits and Cold-Atom Clouds

Samet Demircan, Paul Stankus, Eden V. Figueroa

Published Jan 1, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

An interface between superconducting circuits and atomic systems is the key for distributed quantum computing. We develop a scheme to strongly couple a superconducting microwave resonator to a cold-atom cloud for efficient quantum optical transduction.
DOI
10.1364/quantum.2023.qtu3a.41

Related papers

Superconducting cavity electro-optics: A platform for coherent photon conversion between superconducting and photonic circuits

Linran Fan, Chang‐Ling Zou, Risheng Cheng +5 more

Leveraging the quantum information-processing ability of superconducting circuits and long-distance distribution ability of optical photons promises the realization of complex and large-scale quantum networks. In such a scheme, a coherent and efficient quantum transducer between superconducting and photonic circuits is critical. However, this quantum transducer is still challenging because the use of intermediate excitations in current schemes introduces extra noise and limits bandwidth. We realize direct and coherent transduction between superconducting and photonic circuits based on the triple-resonance electro-optic principle, with integrated devices incorporating both superconducting and optical cavities on the same chip. Electromagnetically induced transparency is observed, indicating the coherent interaction between microwave and optical photons. Internal conversion efficiency of 25.9 ± 0.3% has been achieved, with 2.05 ± 0.04% total efficiency. Superconducting cavity electro-optics offers broad transduction bandwidth and high scalability and represents a significant step toward integrated hybrid quantum circuits and distributed quantum computation.

arXiv:1805.04509•Science Advances•Aug 3, 2018•228 citations

High-fidelity quantum transduction with long coherence time superconducting resonators

Changqing Wang, Silvia Zorzetti

We propose a novel quantum transduction hybrid system based on the coupling of long-coherence time superconducting cavities with electro-optic resonators to achieve high-efficiency and high-fidelity in quantum communication protocols and quantum sensing.

arXiv:2204.13112•Quantum 2.0 Conference and Exhibition•Jan 1, 2022•2 citations

Integrating Quantum Optical and Superconducting Circuits with Quantum Acoustics for Scalable Quantum Network and Computation

Jie Luo

Due to its high coherence in transmission over a large distance in the ambient environment, the quantum optical system has been a prevailing platform for long-distance quantum communication, which was recently realized over a continental distance with a low earth orbit satellite and ground stations [102, 70]. However, the pure quantum optical system has so far shown weak interactions between photon and matter, which makes it inefficient in carrying out deterministic quantum gates for quantum repeater based scalable quantum network and quantum computing. On the other hand, superconducting quantum systems operating in the microwave domain with Josephson junction transmon qubits have proven to be capable of efficient deterministic quantum operations on quantum states [86, 87, 66]. Nevertheless, such architecture is prone to errors and decoherence due to cross-talk between microwave elements in a large-scale superconducting quantum circuit. Furthermore, superconducting systems, in general, also have large footprint (100s um) elements (resonators and superconducting quantum bits) [92, 60] that limit the ability to scale up a superconducting quantum system. Moreover, microwave quantum circuits require cooling to around 10 mK, making it unsuitable for communicating quantum information outside a dilution refrigerator (DF). Micro- and nano- acoustic elements have been extensively used in conventional integrated information processing systems due to their compactness and high coherence [97]. Acoustic systems in quantum engineering also have the advantage of being a platform for universal couplings between various quantum systems including spins, optical photons, and superconducting circuits. As it will be discussed in this thesis, elements critical to scalable optical quantum network and superconducting quantum circuit can be constructed relying on the cavity optomechanics and piezoelectric interactions. Optomechanical interaction is concerned with the light pressure coupling of cavity mechanical deformation to a strong optical field. This interaction has allowed the close to mechanical ground state cooling of mechanical resonators using laser and the ultra-sensitive displacement measurement that led to the detection of gravitational waves in the LIGO collaboration [125, 25]. Optomechanical crystals (OMCs) are lithographically patterned devices which contain a periodic structure that host bandgaps for both optical band electromagnetic waves and microwave band acoustic waves. A properly engineered defect in the crystal can confine and localize acoustic and electromagnetic modes of similar wavelengths into a small mode volume [17, 20, 21]. A strong optomechanical coupling, which can be achieved between such strongly confined co-localized optical and acoustic modes, can be used in engineering the quantum state of mechanical motion to realize useful quantum devices such as a high-coherence quantum memory [74] and an optomechanical high efficiency optical isolator for unidirectionally connecting distant optical cavities via an acoustic bus [37]. To strongly couple the mechanical degree of freedom with a superconducting quantum circuit, various methods can be used, ranging from electromechanic coupling (electric coupling to a mechanically compliant capacitor), magnetomechanical coupling (magnetic coupling to a vibrating SQUID loop), and piezoelectric coupling. The recent advent of quantum acoustics [23, 8, 9] was realized with the strong piezoelectric coupling between a superconducting transmon qubit and a high-coherence mechanical resonator. The engineered strong piezoacoustic coupling provides the possibility to carry out deterministic ultra-high fidelity two-qubit quantum gates on non-classical mechanical quantum states [52]. This ability together with the recent demonstration of ultra-long phonon lifetime mechanical resonators show the possibility of integrating the ultra-high quality mechanical resonator as a compact quantum memory element and even a new ultra-compact (10s um) quantum bit architecture for scalable superconducting quantum circuits. Furthermore, the strong piezoelectric coupling that can transduce quantum state in a superconducting circuit into mechanical wave also makes it possible to efficiently transduce a quantum state between a superconducting quantum circuit and a telecommunication band optical channel via a mechanical waveguide connected to an optomechanical crystal cavity.

•Sep 9, 2019•0 citations

Bulk Acoustic Quantum Transduction

Maxwell Drimmer

Quantum networks of superconducting circuit quantum processors are an exciting prospect but are unfeasible without an efficient quantum interface between optical light and superconducting qubits. This problem motivates the development of a quantum microwave-to-optical transducer, a device that can faithfully transfer the state of a superconducting circuit to a photonic flying qubit and vice versa. This thesis describes our progress towards building a microwave-to-optical transducer mediated by phonons in a high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator (HBAR). Novel aluminum nitride-on-quartz HBARs are designed, fabricated, and tested. The acoustic loss rates are found to be near the state-of-the-art. Transduction-compatible transmon qubits are designed and tested. These qubits are capable of operating inside an optical cavity as well as achieving electromechanical interactions in the strong-coupling regime. An initial experiment studied how superconducting qubits recover after exposure to infrared light and demonstrated that the transduction-compatible qubits should be able to operate in a transducer with a reasonable duty cycle. The concept of microwave-to-optical transduction using multiple acoustic modes is established, and new simulation methods are developed to rapidly optimize HBARs. These tools are used to create a transduction-compatible qubit-HBAR device operating in the multi-mode strong coupling regime. Separately, a transduction compatible optical cavity was built and used to perform optomechanical measurements of a transduction-compatible HBAR and confirm that this device can reach the high-cooperativity regime. Finally, a measurement for verifying that a transducer is operating as a source of single photons is discussed. This can be accomplished by measuring the optical second-order correlation function of transduced photons. A filter cavity cascade is constructed to perform this measurement without being overwhelmed by optical pump leakage. These results establish bulk acoustic transduction as a promising platform for low-noise quantum microwave-to-optical transduction.

•Jan 1, 2025•0 citations

Material study and system design for microwave-optical quantum transduction

Changqing Wang

Transducers mediate microwave/optical frequencies, providingan interface between superconducting quantum systems andoptical fiber communication networks.

•Nov 22, 2023•0 citations

Superconducting Qubits and Circuits: Articial Atoms Coupled to Microwave Photons

S. M. Girvin

•Jan 1, 2011•5 citations
Leveraging the quantum information-processing ability of superconducting circuits and long-distance distribution ability of optical photons promises the realization of complex and large-scale quantum networks. In such a scheme, a coherent and efficient quantum transducer between superconducting and photonic circuits is critical. However, this quantum transducer is still challenging because the use of intermediate excitations in current schemes introduces extra noise and limits bandwidth. We realize direct and coherent transduction between superconducting and photonic circuits based on the triple-resonance electro-optic principle, with integrated devices incorporating both superconducting and optical cavities on the same chip. Electromagnetically induced transparency is observed, indicating the coherent interaction between microwave and optical photons. Internal conversion efficiency of 25.9 ± 0.3% has been achieved, with 2.05 ± 0.04% total efficiency. Superconducting cavity electro-optics offers broad transduction bandwidth and high scalability and represents a significant step toward integrated hybrid quantum circuits and distributed quantum computation.
Due to its high coherence in transmission over a large distance in the ambient environment, the quantum optical system has been a prevailing platform for long-distance quantum communication, which was recently realized over a continental distance with a low earth orbit satellite and ground stations [102, 70]. However, the pure quantum optical system has so far shown weak interactions between photon and matter, which makes it inefficient in carrying out deterministic quantum gates for quantum repeater based scalable quantum network and quantum computing. On the other hand, superconducting quantum systems operating in the microwave domain with Josephson junction transmon qubits have proven to be capable of efficient deterministic quantum operations on quantum states [86, 87, 66]. Nevertheless, such architecture is prone to errors and decoherence due to cross-talk between microwave elements in a large-scale superconducting quantum circuit. Furthermore, superconducting systems, in general, also have large footprint (100s um) elements (resonators and superconducting quantum bits) [92, 60] that limit the ability to scale up a superconducting quantum system. Moreover, microwave quantum circuits require cooling to around 10 mK, making it unsuitable for communicating quantum information outside a dilution refrigerator (DF). Micro- and nano- acoustic elements have been extensively used in conventional integrated information processing systems due to their compactness and high coherence [97]. Acoustic systems in quantum engineering also have the advantage of being a platform for universal couplings between various quantum systems including spins, optical photons, and superconducting circuits. As it will be discussed in this thesis, elements critical to scalable optical quantum network and superconducting quantum circuit can be constructed relying on the cavity optomechanics and piezoelectric interactions. Optomechanical interaction is concerned with the light pressure coupling of cavity mechanical deformation to a strong optical field. This interaction has allowed the close to mechanical ground state cooling of mechanical resonators using laser and the ultra-sensitive displacement measurement that led to the detection of gravitational waves in the LIGO collaboration [125, 25]. Optomechanical crystals (OMCs) are lithographically patterned devices which contain a periodic structure that host bandgaps for both optical band electromagnetic waves and microwave band acoustic waves. A properly engineered defect in the crystal can confine and localize acoustic and electromagnetic modes of similar wavelengths into a small mode volume [17, 20, 21]. A strong optomechanical coupling, which can be achieved between such strongly confined co-localized optical and acoustic modes, can be used in engineering the quantum state of mechanical motion to realize useful quantum devices such as a high-coherence quantum memory [74] and an optomechanical high efficiency optical isolator for unidirectionally connecting distant optical cavities via an acoustic bus [37]. To strongly couple the mechanical degree of freedom with a superconducting quantum circuit, various methods can be used, ranging from electromechanic coupling (electric coupling to a mechanically compliant capacitor), magnetomechanical coupling (magnetic coupling to a vibrating SQUID loop), and piezoelectric coupling. The recent advent of quantum acoustics [23, 8, 9] was realized with the strong piezoelectric coupling between a superconducting transmon qubit and a high-coherence mechanical resonator. The engineered strong piezoacoustic coupling provides the possibility to carry out deterministic ultra-high fidelity two-qubit quantum gates on non-classical mechanical quantum states [52]. This ability together with the recent demonstration of ultra-long phonon lifetime mechanical resonators show the possibility of integrating the ultra-high quality mechanical resonator as a compact quantum memory element and even a new ultra-compact (10s um) quantum bit architecture for scalable superconducting quantum circuits. Furthermore, the strong piezoelectric coupling that can transduce quantum state in a superconducting circuit into mechanical wave also makes it possible to efficiently transduce a quantum state between a superconducting quantum circuit and a telecommunication band optical channel via a mechanical waveguide connected to an optomechanical crystal cavity.
Quantum networks of superconducting circuit quantum processors are an exciting prospect but are unfeasible without an efficient quantum interface between optical light and superconducting qubits. This problem motivates the development of a quantum microwave-to-optical transducer, a device that can faithfully transfer the state of a superconducting circuit to a photonic flying qubit and vice versa. This thesis describes our progress towards building a microwave-to-optical transducer mediated by phonons in a high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator (HBAR). Novel aluminum nitride-on-quartz HBARs are designed, fabricated, and tested. The acoustic loss rates are found to be near the state-of-the-art. Transduction-compatible transmon qubits are designed and tested. These qubits are capable of operating inside an optical cavity as well as achieving electromechanical interactions in the strong-coupling regime. An initial experiment studied how superconducting qubits recover after exposure to infrared light and demonstrated that the transduction-compatible qubits should be able to operate in a transducer with a reasonable duty cycle. The concept of microwave-to-optical transduction using multiple acoustic modes is established, and new simulation methods are developed to rapidly optimize HBARs. These tools are used to create a transduction-compatible qubit-HBAR device operating in the multi-mode strong coupling regime. Separately, a transduction compatible optical cavity was built and used to perform optomechanical measurements of a transduction-compatible HBAR and confirm that this device can reach the high-cooperativity regime. Finally, a measurement for verifying that a transducer is operating as a source of single photons is discussed. This can be accomplished by measuring the optical second-order correlation function of transduced photons. A filter cavity cascade is constructed to perform this measurement without being overwhelmed by optical pump leakage. These results establish bulk acoustic transduction as a promising platform for low-noise quantum microwave-to-optical transduction.