Back to News
quantum-computing

Memory-assisted multimode microwave-to-optical transduction

arXiv Quantum Physics
Loading...
4 min read
0 likes
⚡ Quantum Brief
Researchers demonstrated the first memory-assisted microwave-to-optical quantum transducer, addressing a key challenge in quantum networking by enabling on-demand retrieval of transduced signals while suppressing noise. The team used a $^{171}{\rm Yb}^{3+}$:${\rm Y}_2{\rm SiO}_5$ crystal at 30 mK, leveraging its long coherence times and GHz-range hyperfine splitting to achieve low-noise transduction with just 0.3–0.4 noise photons. Coherent operation was verified through interference patterns by varying input microwave pulse phases or frequencies, confirming the protocol’s quantum fidelity. Multimode capacity was demonstrated via spin and optical inhomogeneous broadening, boosting entanglement rates for quantum repeaters and scalable networks. This breakthrough synchronizes distant superconducting qubits, overcoming prior limitations of pump-induced noise and enabling practical quantum communication links.
Memory-assisted multimode microwave-to-optical transduction

Summarize this article with:

Quantum Physics arXiv:2605.01239 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 2 May 2026] Title:Memory-assisted multimode microwave-to-optical transduction Authors:Ujjwal Gautam, Nasser Gohari Kamel, Sourabh Kumar, Daniel Oblak View a PDF of the paper titled Memory-assisted multimode microwave-to-optical transduction, by Ujjwal Gautam and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Microwave-to-optical quantum transducers will enable coherent interconnection between distant superconducting quantum devices. Ongoing explorations with several platforms have shown promising results at single-photon levels. However, in all these demonstrations, elimination of noise due to the concurrence of the weak transduced signal with intense pump pulses remains a challenge, requiring high suppression filtering setups. A memory-assisted transducer, on the other hand, offers a versatile approach that not only mitigates the noise but also enables the on-demand retrieval of the transduced signal. Here, we integrate a quantum memory protocol with transduction in a three-level atomic system to demonstrate on-demand retrieval of transduced signals. Due to the zero-first-order Zeeman transitions at zero magnetic fields, providing long optical and spin coherence times, and GHz range hyperfine splitting, we use a low-doping concentration $^{171}{\rm Yb}^{3+}$:${\rm Y}_2{\rm SiO}_5$ crystal at 30\,mK temperature. We achieve on-demand transduction assisted by memory with $0.4\ (\text{and }0.3)$ noise photons in the detection window at a storage duration of $460\ (\text{and }620) \, \mu \textrm{s}$. To demonstrate the coherent nature of the protocol, we show interference patterns resulting from transduced signals due to varying phase or frequency of the input microwave pulses. Further, multimode transduction capacity is demonstrated, utilizing the spin and optical inhomogeneous broadening. The on-demand capability of the protocol allows synchronizing qubits in a quantum repeater protocol, while multimode capacity increases the entanglement generation rate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an on-demand microwave-to-optical transducer assisted by memory. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2605.01239 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2605.01239v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.01239 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Daniel Oblak [view email] [v1] Sat, 2 May 2026 04:30:07 UTC (3,938 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Memory-assisted multimode microwave-to-optical transduction, by Ujjwal Gautam and 3 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-05 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)

Read Original

Tags

superconducting-qubits
quantum-networking
quantum-hardware

Source Information

Source: arXiv Quantum Physics