Realization of a functioning dual-type trapped-ion quantum network node

TL;DR

This paper reports the development of a dual-type trapped-ion quantum network node capable of ion-photon entanglement, crosstalk-free quantum memory, and entangling gates, advancing the practical implementation of large-scale quantum internet.

Contribution

It introduces a fully functional dual-type quantum network node with integrated entanglement, memory, and gates, filling a key gap for scalable quantum networks.

Findings

Demonstrated ion-photon entanglement generation

Achieved crosstalk-free quantum memory

Implemented entangling gates between dual-type qubits

Abstract

Trapped ions constitute a promising platform for implementation of a quantum network. Recently, a dual-type qubit scheme has been realized in a quantum network node where the communication qubits and the memory qubits are encoded in different energy levels of the same ion species, such that the generation of ion-photon entanglement on the communication qubits has negligible crosstalk error on the preloaded quantum information in the memory qubits. However, to achieve the versatile applications of a quantum network, a crucial component of the dual-type node, namely the entangling gate between the communication and the memory qubits, is still missing. Here we report a dual-type quantum network node equipped with ion-photon entanglement generation, crosstalk-free quantum memory and entangling gates between the dual-type qubits simultaneously. We demonstrate its practical applications including the quantum state teleportation and the preparation of multipartite entangled state. Our work achieves the necessary components of a dual-type quantum network node and paves the way toward its applications in a large-scale quantum internet.