Abstract
Photon-mediated coupling between distant matter qubits may enable secure communication over long distances, the implementation of distributed quantum computing schemes, and the exploration of new regimes of many-body quantum dynamics. Solid-state quantum emitters coupled to nanophotonic devices represent a promising approach towards these goals, as they combine strong light-matter interaction and high photon collection efficiencies. However, nanostructured environments introduce mismatch and diffusion in optical transition frequencies of emitters, making reliable photon-mediated entanglement generation infeasible. Here we address this long-standing challenge by employing silicon-vacancy color centers embedded in electromechanically deflectable nanophotonic waveguides. This electromechanical strain control enables control and stabilization of optical resonance between two silicon-vacancy centers on the hour timescale. Using this platform, we observe the signature of an entangled, superradiant state arising from quantum interference between two spatially separated emitters in a waveguide. This demonstration and the developed platform constitute a crucial step towards a scalable quantum network with solid-state quantum emitters.
- Received 2 March 2019
- Revised 14 June 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.031022
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Focus
Entangling Photon Sources on a Tiny Bridge
Published 9 August 2019
Researchers entangled a pair of atomic-scale light emitters in a micrometer-scale device, which could potentially be useful for quantum communication and cryptography.
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Popular Summary
Techniques for rapid and reliable distribution of quantum information will enable new computation, communication, and sensing technologies. In recent years, light-emitting defects inside solids have emerged as promising candidates for these technological applications, because they can be integrated easily into photonic and electronic devices. Unfortunately, these emitters suffer from variations in their optical properties induced by fluctuations in their environments, which makes it difficult to reliably share quantum information between them. Here, we present a “tuning knob” that allows for dynamic corrections of emitter optical properties.
For many promising quantum emitters, stretching the environment around the emitter is the only feasible technique for controlling optical behavior. We experimentally demonstrate that diamond waveguides that can be electrostatically deflected can be used to completely overcome the variations in the optical response of embedded silicon-vacancy (SiV) color centers. Using these devices, we create a situation in which quantum information is shared between two remote SiV centers and observe an entangled state.
Our demonstration indicates that using strain to tune SiV centers can enable reliable information sharing between distant quantum memories and removes one of the last barriers to their application in quantum networks.