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A quantum memory at telecom wavelengths

Nature Physics volume 16, pages 772–777 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Nanofabricated mechanical resonators are gaining significant momentum among potential quantum technologies due to their unique design freedom and independence from naturally occurring resonances. As their functionality is widely detached from material choice, they constitute ideal tools for transducers—intermediaries between different quantum systems—and as memory elements in conjunction with quantum communication and computing devices. Their capability to host ultra-long-lived phonon modes is particularity attractive for non-classical information storage, both for future quantum technologies and for fundamental tests of physics. Here, we demonstrate a Duan–Lukin–Cirac–Zoller-type mechanical quantum memory with an energy decay time of T1 ≈ 2 ms, which is controlled through an optical interface engineered to natively operate at telecom wavelengths. We further investigate the coherence of the memory, equivalent to the dephasing \({T}_{2}^{* }\) for qubits, which has a power-dependent value between 15 and 112 μs. This demonstration is enabled by an optical scheme to create a superposition state of \(\left|0\right\rangle +\left|1\right\rangle\) mechanical excitations, with an arbitrary ratio between the vacuum and single-phonon components.

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Fig. 1: Design of the optomechanical quantum memory.
Fig. 2: Characterization of the memory lifetime and optical heating.
Fig. 3: Continuous-wave measurement of the mechanical coherence.
Fig. 4: Quantum phase coherence of the mechanical memory.

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Data availability

Source data are available for this paper. All other data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The QuTiP code used for the simulations in the Supplementary Information is available on GitHub (https://github.com/GroeblacherLab/quantum_memory_code).

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Forsch, B. Li, M. Vlassov and I. Yang for experimental support and D. Bothner for valuable discussions. We also acknowledge assistance from Kavli Nanolab Delft. This work is supported by the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) Projectruimte grants (15PR3210, 16PR1054), the European Research Council (ERC StG Strong-Q, 676842) and by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO/OCW), as part of the Frontiers of Nanoscience program, as well as through a Vidi grant (680-47-541/994). B.H. and R.S. acknowledge funding from the European Union under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Department of Quantum Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Andreas Wallucks, Igor Marinković, Bas Hensen, Robert Stockill & Simon Gröblacher

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  1. Andreas Wallucks
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  2. Igor Marinković
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Contributions

A.W., I.M. and S.G. planned the experiment and performed the device design. I.M. fabricated the sample and A.W. performed the measurements. A.W., B.H., R.S. and S.G. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript with input from all authors. S.G. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Simon Gröblacher.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–6 and Discussion.

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Wallucks, A., Marinković, I., Hensen, B. et al. A quantum memory at telecom wavelengths. Nat. Phys. 16, 772–777 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-020-0891-z

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