Hugues de Riedmatten

Quantum Frequency Conversion (QFC) is a widely used technique to interface atomic systems with the telecom band in order to facilitate propagation over longer distances in fiber. Here we demonstrate the difference-frequency conversion from 606 nm to 1552 nm of microsecond-long weak coherent pulses at the single photon level compatible with Pr$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5\,$ quantum memories, with high-signal to noise ratio. We use a single step difference frequency generation process with a continuous-wave pump at 994 nm in a MgO:ppLN-waveguide and ultra-narrow spectral filtering down to a bandwidth of 12.5 MHz. With this setup, we achieve the conversion of weak coherent pulses of duration up to 13.6 $μs$ with a device efficiency of about 25% and a signal-to-noise ratio >460 for 10 $μs$-long pulses containing one photon on average. This signal-to-noise ratio is large enough to enable a high-fidelity conversion of qubits emitted from an emissive quantum memory based on Pr$^{3+}$:Y$_2$SiO$_5\,$ and to realize an interface with quantum processing nodes based on narrow-linewidth cavity-enhanced trapped ions.

Several platforms are being considered as hardware for quantum technologies. For quantum computing (QC), superconducting qubits and artificially trapped ions are among the leading platforms, but many others also show promise, e.g. photons, cold atoms, defect centers including Rare-Earth (RE) ions. So far, results are limited to the regime of noisy intermediate scale qubits (NISQ), with a small number of qubits and a limited connectivity, and it is likely that future QC hardware will utilize several existing platforms in different ways. Thus, it currently makes sense to invest resources broadly and explore the full range of promising routes to quantum technology. Rare-earth ions in solids constitute one of the most versatile platforms for future quantum technology. One advantage is good coherence properties even when confined in strong natural traps inside a solid-state matrix. This confinement allows very high qubit densities and correspondingly strong ion-ion couplings. In addition, although their fluorescence is generally weak, cavity integration can enhance the emission greatly and enable very good connections to photonic circuits, including at the telecom wavelengths, making them promising systems for long-term scalability. The primary aim of this roadmap is to provide a complete picture of what components a RE quantum computer would consist of, to describe the details of all parts required to achieve a scalable system, and to discuss the most promising paths to reach it. In brief, we find that clusters of 50-100 single RE ions can act as high fidelity qubits in small processors, occupying only about (10 nm)^3. Due to the high capacity for integration of the RE systems, they be optically read out and connected to other such clusters for larger scalability. We make suggestions for future improvements, which could allow the REQC platform to be a leading one.