No Arabic abstract
We demonstrate optical probing of spectrally resolved single Nd rare-earth ions in yttrium orthovanadate. The ions are coupled to a photonic crystal resonator and show strong enhancement of the optical emission rate via the Purcell effect, resulting in near radiatively limited single photon emission. The measured high coupling cooperativity between a single photon and the ion allows for the observation of coherent optical Rabi oscillations. This could enable optically controlled spin qubits, quantum logic gates, and spin-photon interfaces for future quantum networks.
Quantum networks based on optically addressable spin qubits promise to enable secure communication, distributed quantum computing, and tests of fundamental physics. Scaling up quantum networks based on solid-state luminescent centers requires coherent spin and optical transitions coupled to photonic resonators. Here we investigate single $mathrm{{}^{171}Yb^{3+}}$ ions in yttrium orthovanadate coupled to a nanophotonic cavity. These ions possess optical and spin transitions that are first-order insensitive to magnetic field fluctuations, enabling optical linewidths less than 1 MHz and spin coherence times exceeding 30 ms for cavity-coupled ions. The cavity-enhanced optical emission rate facilitates efficient spin initialization and conditional single-shot readout with fidelity greater than 95%. These results showcase a solid-state platform based on single coherent rare-earth ions for the future quantum internet.
On-chip nanophotonic cavities will advance quantum information science and measurement because they enable efficient interaction between photons and long-lived solid-state spins, such as those associated with rare-earth ions in crystals. The enhanced photon-ion interaction creates new opportunities for all-optical control using the ac Stark shift. Toward this end, we characterize the ac Stark interaction between off-resonant optical fields and Nd$^{3+}$-ion dopants in a photonic crystal resonator fabricated from yttrium orthovanadate (YVO$_4$). Using photon echo techniques, at a detuning of 160 MHz we measure a maximum ac Stark shift of 2$pitimes$12.3 MHz per intra-cavity photon, which is large compared to both the homogeneous linewidth ($Gamma_h =$100 kHz) and characteristic width of isolated spectral features created through optical pumping ($Gamma_f approx$3 MHz). The photon-ion interaction strength in the device is sufficiently large to control the frequency and phase of the ions for quantum information processing applications. In particular, we discuss and assess the use of the cavity enhanced ac Stark shift to realize all-optical quantum memory and detection protocols. Our results establish the ac Stark shift as a powerful added control in rare-earth ion quantum technologies.
We explore spin-orbit thermal entanglement in rare-earth ions, based on a witness obtained from mean energies. The entanglement temperature $T_{E}$, below which entanglement emerges, is found to be thousands of kelvin above room temperature for all light rare earths. This demonstrate the robustness to environmental fluctuations of entanglement between internal degrees of freedom of a single ion.
Quantum light-matter interfaces (QLMIs) connecting stationary qubits to photons will enable optical networks for quantum communications, precise global time keeping, photon switching, and studies of fundamental physics. Rare-earth-ion (REI) doped crystals are state-of-the-art materials for optical quantum memories and quantum transducers between optical photons, microwave photons and spin waves. Here we demonstrate coupling of an ensemble of neodymium REIs to photonic nano-cavities fabricated in the yttrium orthosilicate host crystal. Cavity quantum electrodynamics effects including Purcell enhancement (F=42) and dipole-induced transparency are observed on the highly coherent 4I9/2-4F3/2 optical transition. Fluctuations in the cavity transmission due to statistical fine structure of the atomic density are measured, indicating operation at the quantum level. Coherent optical control of cavity-coupled REIs is performed via photon echoes. Long optical coherence times (T2~100 microseconds) and small inhomogeneous broadening are measured for the cavity-coupled REIs, thus demonstrating their potential for on-chip scalable QLMIs.
We describe a method for creating small quantum processors in a crystal stoichiometric in an optically active rare earth ion. The crystal is doped with another rare earth, creating an ensemble of identical clusters of surrounding ions, whose optical and hyperfine frequencies are uniquely determined by their spatial position in the cluster. Ensembles of ions in each unique position around the dopant serve as qubits, with strong local interactions between ions in different qubits. These ensemble qubits can each be used as a quantum memory for light, and we show how the interactions between qubits can be used to perform linear operations on the stored photonic state. We also describe how these ensemble qubits can be used to enact, and study, error correction.