Ion-Photonic Frequency Qubit Correlations for Quantum Networks

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates ion-photon frequency entanglement in ytterbium ions with high fidelity, advancing quantum network scalability by enabling robust, long-distance communication through frequency conversion to telecom bands.

Contribution

It presents the first direct demonstration of ion-photon frequency entanglement in $^{171}$Yb$^+$ ions with high fidelity, using a specialized UV spectrometer, and benchmarks correlations before telecom conversion.

Findings

Achieved 92.4% fidelity in ion-photon frequency entanglement.

Showed robustness of frequency encoding against decoherence.

Benchmarked ion-photon correlations prior to telecom frequency conversion.

Abstract

Efficiently scaling quantum networks to long ranges requires local processing nodes to perform basic computation and communication tasks. Trapped ions have demonstrated all the properties required for the construction of such a node, storing quantum information for up to 12 minutes, implementing deterministic high fidelity logic operations on one and two qubits, and ion-photon coupling. While most ions suitable for quantum computing emit photons in visible to near ultraviolet (UV) frequency ranges poorly suited to long-distance fibre optical based networking, recent experiments in frequency conversion provide a technological solution by shifting the photons to frequencies in the telecom band with lower attenuation for fused silica fibres. Encoding qubits in frequency rather than polarization makes them more robust against decoherence from thermal or mechanical noise due to the conservation of energy. To date, ion-photonic frequency qubit entanglement has not been directly shown. Here we demonstrate a frequency encoding ion-photon entanglement protocol in $^{171}$Yb$^+$ with correlations equivalent to 92.4(8)% fidelity using a purpose-built UV hyperfine spectrometer. The same robustness against decoherence precludes our passive optical setup from rotating photonic qubits to unconditionally demonstrate entanglement, however it is sufficient to allow us to benchmark the quality of ion-UV photon correlations prior to frequency conversion to the telecom band.