Rare earth ions in crystals for quantum memories and transducers

Optical quantum networks for distributing entanglement between quantum machines will enable distributed quantum computing, secure communications and new sensing methods. These networks will contain quantum transducers for connecting computing qubits to travelling optical photon qubits, and quantum repeater links for distributing entanglement at long distances. In this talk I discuss implementations of quantum hardware for repeaters and transducers using rare-earth ions, like ytterbium and erbium, exhibiting highly coherent optical and spin transitions in a solid-state environment.  We show that single ytterbium ions in nano-photonic resonators are well suited for optically addressable quantum bits with long spin coherence, single shot readout, good optical stability, and local access to nuclear spin wave quantum memory registers. These single qubits will form the backbone of future quantum repeater networks and will be augmented by optical storage and linear processing capabilities, also implemented using rare-earth ions. Towards this end we demonstrated optical quantum storage using erbium ensembles coupled to silicon photonics, where the frequency and release time of the stored photon can be controlled using on-chip electronics. Finally, to connect the optical network to superconducting quantum computers, we develop optical to microwave quantum transducers based on rare-earth ensembles simultaneously coupled to on-chip optical and microwave superconducting resonators. I conclude by addressing the remaining challenges for interconnecting these components into future quantum networks.